Before The New World
by rab147
Summary: Bored with training, Luffy leaves the island of Rusukaina a few months early. To pass the time until he can meet up with his crew on the Sabaody Archipelago, Luffy travels the Grand Line once more looking for adventure. Eventual return to Alabasta! Luffy/Vivi
1. Time To Go

Canon spoilers, beware!

As in just below this line. Read on at your own discretion...

You were warned.

_Before The New World_ starts off during the two year time skip, approximately a year and eight months through Luffy's training. In order for you to understand this story, you should at least be up to the point where the Straw Hat Crew reunites on Sabaody Archipelago after the 2 years.

This will mainly be a Luffy-centric story, and there will be a pairing. Luffy/Vivi all the way. The rating is T at the moment, but that may change eventually. I haven't decided yet. I'll be sure to say in an Author's Note if I ever do make it M.

First and foremost, this is intended to be a fun piece. Hopefully you'll enjoy it. That's all for now I think. Onward!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece.

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Chapter 1

Time To Go

_On Rusukaina, a deserted island in the Calm Belt northwest of Amazon Lily…_

Sighing, a young man sank to the ground. He sat there for several moments, glancing around moodily. Feeling restless, the man scratched his armpit. A rather uncharacteristic contemplative expression spread across his face.

Now what was he supposed to do?

He'd been there for some twenty or so months, working his hardest to get stronger so that he'd be able to protect those he cared about. His brother Ace's death had stuck with him, clinging to him as it likely always would. It was a part of him now. Not only a constant reminder of how he'd failed to save someone important to him, but as motivation to never let something like that ever happen again.

Especially not to his nakama, his friends.

At least now he felt he stood a chance of accomplishing that. He had the ability to defend the people important to him. Rayleigh had given him that, for which he'd be forever grateful.

But at this point, Rusukaina was getting old. He'd made all the progress he was going to be able to make from this island, learned all he could from the monstrous creatures that inhabited it. Unfortunately, there was still several several months left before he was scheduled to meet up with his crew on the Sabaody Archipelago.

What would he do until then?

A lot of time had passed while he'd been training. He'd be dumb not to suspect that some things had probably changed out there, beyond the confines of this small island. He spent much of his down time just pondering how those he knew before may be different now, how much all of them might have changed.

That considered, just from looking at the man you could tell that he himself had changed too.

He had grown taller – an astonishing three inches – and notably had a more defined, mature look about him.

The long-sleeved red cardigan he now wore was unbuttoned, leaving much of his upper torso revealed. His toned chest and abs were out in the open for all to see, along with the large, dangerous-looking X-shaped scar he'd received from Akainu in Whitebeard's war.

Additionally, much like his red top, his blue shorts were also innately plain. They had pockets, which were perfect to store meat in. And to top it all off a yellow sash was loosely tied around his waist.

Yet, not everything was different.

He still had the black hair, and it was still reasonably short but not terribly so, and he still sported that rather noticeable scar directly beneath his left eye. Those things hadn't changed.

Neither had his sandals, as they were the most comfortable footwear he knew of, and of course he still prized Shank's straw hat above all else. Said straw hat was sitting safely atop a rock at the moment, where it had been perched ever since he'd arrived.

Had anyone not already guessed, this man was none other than the infamous pirate Monkey D. Luffy, the 19-year-old captain of the Straw Hat Pirates worth 400,000,000 beli.

His reputation as a ruthless enemy of the World Government was very much exaggerated, as was the reputation of his crew, but there was just no helping it. He was a pirate, after all, and they always received the bad rep.

This was not, however, to say he hadn't crossed the World Government many times, or that he wasn't reckless to a fault, but most never even considered the fact that he wasn't the man the government made him out to be. They all naively listened to what the World Government said and blindly followed what it did, unaware of how corrupt and suspicious it really was.

That's just how it was, he'd accepted that long ago. He didn't have to like it though.

Luffy yawned, folding his hands behind his head as he leaned back against the trunk of a tree near his campfire.

"Another night…" he dejectedly muttered, tilting his head upward. Through the opening in the canopy of trees surrounding him, a small patch of the night sky was visible. He could just make out a dozen scattered, twinkling stars through it.

The rest of the endless sky above him was concealed by the oppressive forest cover, even if realistically he knew it was all there and just out of sight. That one lone section of it was clear though. From that angle, it appeared as if that little blob of sky was caged off, isolated from everything else by the tree tops.

Coincidentally, that was exactly how he felt at the moment. Isolated.

He was trapped on this island, away from any human contact whatsoever, and had been for awhile. Rayleigh had left the island over two months ago, telling him to continue training by himself. But without anyone else to keep him company, Luffy just felt…odd. It felt unnatural, honestly.

Being alone like this bothered him more than he would have thought – much more than it used to when he was younger. He knew why that was too, why it bothered him so much now.

It was because he had gotten so used to the rowdy life of a pirate, of spending almost every waking moment with his crew and of going on all sorts of adventures with them. After doing all of that for so long, it was no mystery why doing anything different just didn't feel right anymore.

He missed it – the lifestyle, the adventures, the fun…all of it. But what he missed the most was _them_.

His nakama. His friends. It had been over a year and a half since he'd last seen them.

Luffy wondered what they were all doing now. He knew they were all okay – they were strong, after all – yet he couldn't help but be curious about what the remaining Straw Hats were up to.

Had they gotten even stronger too, like him? How much had they changed? Were they even the same people they had once been?

Would he be able to recognize them after such a long time apart?

Luffy blankly stared up at the stars in that narrow gap of tree cover, imagining each of his friends. He wondered if they might be looking up at those same stars from somewhere else in the world.

Zoro, his green-haired First Mate, who was a swordsman that used three swords instead of just one.

Nami, his navigator, who was obsessed with money and tangerines, but a weather genius nonetheless.

Usopp, his liar and sharpshooter, who could hit any target no matter how far away.

Sanji, his chef, who was a great cook that was still strong despite using only his legs in combat.

Chopper, his doctor, who was a super cool reindeer that could talk and fight.

Robin, his genius historian, who was knowledgeable about a lot of things but also strong in a battle.

Franky, his shipwright, who was a cyborg that loved Speedos.

Brooke, his musician, who was an awesome skeleton with a cane sword.

All of them were out there, somewhere in the world, and he couldn't wait until he finally got the chance to meet up with them once more. In four months, that would happen, but not before then.

He wished it was sooner, yes, but it wasn't. If only he could somehow change that time frame now...no. It wouldn't be possible. There was just no way he would be able to contact all of them like he had back then.

It wasn't fair. He was bored out of his mind!

Luffy hated being bored.

This was when inspiration suddenly hit him, with a great idea that would make the remaining time until he met up with his crew go by that much quicker. He truly couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it before this moment, it was so obvious, and it just got better and better the more he considered it.

Yes, that's what he would do. Tomorrow, in the morning, Luffy was going to leave the island of Rusukaina.

OOOOO

Luffy was woken the next morning by something tickling the side of his cheek.

"Mmm…" he groaned groggily, opening his eyes to find a large snout the size of his entire body resting beside him. He squinted against the bright sunlight pouring down on him through the gap in tree top cover overhead. "What the…"

He rolled away from the snout, and its whiskers, as soon as he realized that they were the problem. Of course, he should've known! Trevor always slept right next to him.

Trevor was a large hound-like animal, though Luffy had no idea what specific kind of animal the beast truly was, who he had befriended after fighting. The furry and over-sized doggish creature was actually shockingly strong, and had razor sharp canines as well as small bent horns along his spine. It was a type of species the rubber man had never seen before coming to Rusukaina.

After a couple more minutes of trying to fall back asleep, Luffy suddenly jumped up, wide awake. His plans from the night before came back to him just then, and he grinned excitedly.

"Right! Today I'm leaving to have my own adventure!" he cried, chuckling. "At least 'til I meet up with Zoro and the others at Sunny."

"Yosh! I need meat for the journey," he called out obnoxiously, reminding himself and every other living thing nearby as he started walking forward into the surrounding forest, outside the boundaries of the clearing his camp was in.

He halted, glancing back to his camp thoughtfully at its residents, four assorted beasts, while they simultaneously stared back questioningly at him. Shaking his head as if finally deciding, Luffy mumbled, "No, I can't use their meat. I made friends with them."

He turned back around and continued on into the brush in search of a more suitable source of meat, letting the four big creatures return to their slumber.

There were several animals that Luffy had 'tamed and named' – as Rayleigh had put it – while on Rusukaina, but apart from those select few, the rest of the island's inhabitants were fair game in terms of meat. He had scoured practically every inch of the island during his long stay there, so he knew its terrain like the back of his hand. He also knew which animals tasted the best after trying all of them at one time or another.

Unlike when he'd arrived, Luffy was now powerful enough to take down the toughest beasts on the island, thanks to his Haki. Because of this many of the creatures knew by now to be wary of him and avoid him at all costs, lest they wished to become his next meal.

Fortunately for Luffy though, there always seemed to be some animals that were either unaware of his strength or just completely ignored it and attacked him anyway. This was why he had never run out of game to hunt, or meat to eat. Rusukaina hosted a surplus of life, odd and tough as it may be, so it was the perfect place for someone like him, who ate as much as _inhumanly_ possible at every meal.

It took Luffy but a mere hour or two to round up enough meat to last him a couple weeks before he found himself standing on the coast he had first arrived at, with huge bags of all the meat he had gathered and large barrels of water from the nearest creek, sitting behind him.

Where he'd gotten the monstrous cloth bags or the wooden barrels in the first place was irrelevant at this point. All that mattered was that he had them.

Luffy excitedly stepped over to the rock where his, or rather Shank's, straw hat was perched and reverently lifted it off of the rock.

He scanned it appreciatively for a moment, before putting it atop his head, relishing in its comfortable weight as he did so. It had been a long time since he'd last worn it. He had visited it many times, of course, when he was feeling the most nostalgic, but he had never actually put it on, instead vowing not to wear it again until he was finished with his training.

It was finally that time, it seemed.

Bending down next to the rock his hat had been on, Luffy picked up something that looked like a large seashell. In truth, the rubber man knew it to be a Dial from Skypiea by its appearance, but he still examined it curiously. It hadn't been there only a couple days ago, when he'd last visited his hat.

"How…" he said confusedly, wondering how it could have gotten there. He looked up at the clear sky above him suspiciously, running through the possibilities.

Maybe it had fallen from the sky? From another island up there?

Luffy scratched the side of his temple. That didn't seem likely, even to him. Plus, if it had actually fallen from a sky island, there weren't any signs of its landing that he could see. There should've been a small crater where it landed at the very least, which there wasn't.

That left only one alternative, in Luffy's mind. Someone on the Blue Sea had brought it and placed it there purposefully.

That scenario made him scratch his head too, however. Doing such a thing shouldn't have been possible, at least not undetected. Rusukaina was not that big of an island, and Luffy's Kenbunshoku Haki had long been developed enough that his senses faintly reached across the entire island. That said, he would have been able to sense if someone had come to the island and left the Dial there.

What else could have happened though?

Unless...could an animal have left it there? That would explain why he wouldn't have sensed it, with all of the other animals on the island. But that then led to the question of where an animal would get a Dial in the first place.

Shaking his head in bewilderment, Luffy decided to drop his musings of the Dial's origins and came upon another unknown.

He didn't even know what type of Dial it was.

The rubber man turned the Dial around in his hands a few times, being careful not to press the button at its apex. After examining it closer, he still had no idea what kind it was nor whether or not it was a dangerous type.

He realized he should have been paying closer attention on Sky Island and back when Usopp used them. He had never really familiarized himself with the different types of Dials and their appearances like Usopp had…if only the sharpshooter were here now! Then this wouldn't be a problem at all.

His long-nosed nakama was not here though, Luffy noted dejectedly, which left him in a bit of a pickle. There was no way to figure out if the Dial he was holding was a dangerous Impact Dial or just a harmless Flavor Dial.

Well, that just meant there was only one option left.

Perking up, Luffy smiled. "Guess I'll just see what happens then."

He pressed the Dial's apex without any further hesitation.

There was a long precarious moment where nothing happened, and he started to think that maybe he had been mistaken in thinking it was a Dial and not just a normal sea shell, before Luffy finally heard a voice. A familiar voice, incidentally.

It was coming from the Dial itself. So it was a Tone Dial!

Laughing, Luffy brought the Tone Dial closer so that he could hear it better. He went so far as to put it right up against his ear, bumping his straw hat in the process so that it sat lopsidedly on his head.

Rayleigh's wizened voice could be heard from the Dial's opening.

"_-llo, Luffy! I see you're faring well on your own. That is good, my boy, keep it up. I trust you know of Dials and how to use them after your trip to the sky? Well, you pressed the button already, so I expect you do._

_Now, I suppose you are wondering why I left you this Tone Dial. I didn't want to disrupt your training, so I decided to leave you this instead. Along the same vein, I bet you're also wondering how I personally left this without you noticing. I know I would be curious._

_That, I'm afraid, is an answer I'm not willing to give you. I can give you a hint, however. I will tell you that it does in fact have to do with Haki, though admittedly it is one skill that many Haki-users never take advantage of, because they do not know enough of the ins and outs of Haki to use it._

_That is not the hint though. This is the hint: what I did was not a new form of Haki. Rather, it is just a clever manipulation of one of the three types. See if you can't figure it out on your own, Luffy! Think of it as your next challenge toward mastering Haki, alright? It should help you in the New World if you manage to get the hang of it._

_But back to the real reason I delivered this Dial to you. I'm sorry to say, Luffy, that I fear I will be unable to meet you on Sabaody Archipelago when your two years are up. Something's come up, and I am needed elsewhere, so this is my farewell to you. Don't worry, your ship is coated and safely awaiting your return, I promise. Pay a visit to Shakky in Grove 13 to find it when you're ready!_

_One last thing before I end this terribly long message. Take heed of these words, please. The power we all know as Haki is essential where you intend to go. If you know what you're doing, you will be a force to be reckoned with!_

_What you've learned from me are just the basics of the three types – the tip of iceberg if you will. So, continue to expand on them. That is something I can't emphasize enough. You will spend your entire life training your Haki, and still not have it fully mastered even at my age! That should give you some idea of how much potential your willpower has. _

_Manipulating Haki is a skill that - and I say this with confidence - has never been 'mastered.' Personally, I believe it will always stay like this, but feel free to prove me wrong, Luffy. I dare you!_

_And with that, I believe it is time for me to take my leave. My time on Roger's ship were some of the best years of my life, so enjoy these days while you can! Hopefully, we'll meet again someday. Maybe even sooner than you think._

_Good luck on your journey, Luffy. Please pass that on to your crew for me – they're a good bunch. Trust them! Farewell!_

…_Oh, and keep the Dial. Consider it one last gift from me. You never know when it might come in handy! Hah!"_

The Dial message ended with Rayleigh laughing heartily. It was a couple of silent seconds before Luffy laughed back, just for the hell of it.

He was a little disappointed that his mentor wouldn't be able to see him off at Sabaody Archipelago, but he was grateful that the man had been nice enough to leave him a goodbye. Rayleigh had really opened his eyes to power during the time the man had spent training him.

Now he was that much closer to becoming the Pirate King and returning Shank's hat to him. Luffy's eyes brightened momentarily as he considered this, before he quickly turned his attention back to the present.

Pocketing the Tone Dial, he quickly stepped over to the edge of the island, to the small drop off where water met land. Facing the sea, Luffy grinned and cupped his hands around his mouth, taking a deep breath.

"ACE!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs.

Standing back, Luffy folded his arms across his chest and waited, tapping his foot idly. Below him, waves crashed against the sides of the island constantly. It was a comforting sound to him, actually, almost like he was out sailing and the water was just sloshing against his ship. That brought a light smile to his face.

The sun glittered off the blue ocean brightly as he gazed outward into the distance. As far as the eye could see, there was no land in sight. He wasn't too concerned about that though.

He knew if he moved to the southeast side of the island, he would be able to see the faint, miniscule outline of Amazon Lily, but that wasn't where he wanted to go. That did, however, remind him of something.

Hancock was supposed to pick him up after the two years were up, but if Luffy left the island now, he wouldn't be there when she arrived and she might wonder where he went. He should leave a note or something, he decided, so that the Kuja tribe wouldn't worry.

Just as he was about to go about doing that, rushing water could be heard, interrupting his current train of thought.

Luffy glanced back toward the ocean, another grin sprouting on his face. Water erupted upwards as something emerged from the blue depths, something gigantic. The water fell back to sea level with multiple crashes, further revealing the humongous monster.

The creature was probably the biggest Sea King Luffy had ever met, which was saying something, as in the Calm Belt the biggest Sea Kings in the world were plentiful. It was so large that even the smallest tooth in its mouthful of razor sharp teeth dwarfed the Thousand Sunny at least twenty times over.

The Sea King's body was generically serpent-like. There were no fins on it, as it moved through the water like a gigantic sea snake would, nor did it have any other sort of limbs. Its head was probably a mixture of 2 or more creatures, but Luffy thought it looked very dinosaur-like. Almost raptor-like. If you had to put a label on it, that's how he would describe it. There was a large curved horn on the end of its nose bridge/snout, along with many other smaller (though not small by any means) spiky horns on top of its head and down its back and spine all the way to its tail.

Its scales were armor-like, colored dark blue like the deepest parts of the ocean, and its eyes were prominent golden slits surrounded by black. All of this gave the beast a rather intimidating appearance, but really, once you got to know him Ace was pretty friendly. Just like Luffy's late brother.

With a cheer, Luffy shouted a greeting, "Ace!"

Ace, the massive Sea King just described, turned its eyes down to look at Luffy and gave a roar back in greeting, rattling the entire island as it did so.

Luffy fondly remembered when he'd first met the Sea King, shortly after he'd arrived on Rusukaina. Ace had been surfacing leisurely when Luffy had recklessly decided to test his skills against it. This was in the early phases of learning Haki for Luffy, so his strongest attacks against the Sea King barely even tickled it. Ace had promptly and utterly defeated him with just one swipe of its spiked tail.

The Sea King had been preparing to eat the Rubber man when Rayleigh had been forced to intervene and snatched Luffy away before Ace could close its jaws. The beast, unsurprisingly, was not happy about that, but there was nothing it could do as Rayleigh and Luffy were halfway across the island by then, thanks to the old man's frightening speed.

Several months later, a similar situation occurred. Luffy was strolling along the coastal line during a break in his training when the Sea King suddenly emerged…

"_You!" Luffy cried, pointing up at the Sea King towering over him in recognition. He remembered that monster straight away, just as the Sea King seemed to remember him as well. Luffy was its prey that had gotten away, after all._

"_I'm stronger now," he warned the beast as it lunged forward, snapping its jaws in Luffy's direction with unexpected speed._

_Luffy was ready though, and blurred away just as the King's humongous jaws bit into the island itself, tearing a chunk of the island away as it pulled back. The Sea King attempted to hit him several more times, but Luffy managed to dodge each time. _

_Finally, with a second of time to prepare, Luffy enlarged his arm and transitioned into Gear Third, while imbuing his giant fist with as much concentrated Busoshoku Haki as he could. He leaped toward the Sea King at the same time as it was lunging, and clobbered the beast with just that one punch._

_The beast dropped, somehow landing part way onto the island, while Luffy whooped victoriously._

"_Hah! I told you I was stronger!"_

Ace hadn't taken too well to losing that first time, and so five more battles occurred between the two of them, with Luffy coming out on top in all of them. It was after those fights that the tamed Sea King eventually became his friend, who he ended up naming after his late older brother.

And that's where they found themselves today.

Ace towered over him as usual, looking curiously down at him. Luffy could just discern the Sea King's questioning stare at why it was being called.

Laughing, Luffy yelled, "We're going to go on an adventure! You ready?"

Ace roared once more, which he took for a "Hell yeah!"

Luffy pumped a fist in the air, "Great! Just give me one second, I gotta do somethin'!"

Closing his eyes and putting his hand to his chin, Luffy tried to figure out how he would go about leaving a message for the Kuja tribe. The Tone Dial immediately came to mind as something perfect for just this sort of situation, but he was hesitant to discard it so soon.

He'd rather keep it if he could, but what else could he use to send a message?

After thinking for a brief moment, Luffy could only come up with one option. It should work just fine though. He opened his eyes and began looking around searchingly, finally finding a flat rock slab near the rock that he had previously perched his hat on.

"That should do," Luffy murmured to himself, before sticking his right pointer finger up to his mouth and biting the skin of his fingertip. The pain was minimal as it bled freely. He squeezed it to try to push more blood out before he started crudely writing on the light-colored rock slab, using his own blood as ink.

**Hancock, Margaret, and rest of Kuja tribe:**

**I'm done with my training, so I'm leaving now. Don't worry about me, I'm going to explore a bit before I meet my crew back at our ship when the 2 years are up. I'll be sure to come back and visit sometime! Thanks for everything!**

**Luffy**

Sitting back, he admired his work with a satisfied smile spread across his face. The letters were very lopsided and disproportioned, but it was still legible. Barely.

"Perfect!" he exclaimed aloud, genuinely happy with how it all turned out. After a moment of deliberation, Luffy bent back toward the rock and added a small heart shape next to his name, smirking as he thought of what Hancock's reaction would be to that.

Luffy was well aware of Hancock's feelings toward him, and how much she cared for him. He almost wished he would be there just to see her reaction when she saw it. He closed his eyes for a moment, just picturing the Snake Princess.

It was true that before his training, Luffy had been ignorant of such things, but Rayleigh had opened his eyes to more than just power. After realizing that Luffy hadn't had anyone to explain such things, the older man had a talk with him. "The birds and the bees," he'd called it, although Luffy wasn't entirely sure why since that uncomfortable conversation hadn't contained any mention of birds or bees whatsoever.

Yes, he wasn't a little kid anymore. It was almost as if Rayleigh's talk had set him off - flipped a switch or something.

That was how he now understood just what drawing that heart next to his name would do to Hancock. It was just too bad he wouldn't be there to see it, nor would he be able to say goodbye to her in person. It was time to leave though, he'd already decided that. He would just have to hope that he ran into her in the future so that he could thank her for everything she'd done for him.

"Yosh! I'm ready, Ace, let's go!" he finally exclaimed, turning in Ace's direction.

The Sea King leaned downward closer to ground level, allowing to Luffy to stretch his rubber arms and climb up on top of its massive head. From there, Luffy once again stretched his rubber arms and grabbed the bulging bags of meat still sitting on the ground, before similarly grabbing the water barrels.

When he finally got everything he needed atop Ace's head, securely pressed between the various spikes sticking out of the Sea King's head, Luffy plopped down near the front of Ace's head, just above the Sea King's eyes, so that he could have an unobstructed view of everything.

Conveniently, there was a horn located directly behind where he was sitting that he could lean back against, ensuring maximum comfort. When Ace straightened back up to its normal height above the water, Luffy oohed in awe at how high up he was. It was spectacular – he felt like the king of the world all the way up there!

"This is awesome, Ace!" he shouted zealously, taking in everything from so high up in the air.

Once he'd calmed down, Luffy glanced around in different directions, trying to figure out which way to go. He did not have a Log Pose in his possession, which would make his travel plans a bit unconventional, but he was intent on traveling somewhere despite that, so he decided he'd just have to choose randomly.

It would be better that way, more spontaneous.

Luffy turned his head, he knew Amazon Lily was in _that _direction. He whipped his head in another direction - and he knew that the Marine prison and headquarters were in _that_ direction. Those were two places he didn't want to go for sure, so he picked a direction away from both of those destinations that he knew would still lead him back toward the Grand Line.

And there it was, that's the direction he would go.

Luffy was fully aware of the fact that trying to go certain directions wouldn't work at all once he left the Calm Belt and got back into the Grand Line, but he was okay with that. He'd just go wherever the ocean wanted him to! It sounded like a good idea to him!

"Alright, Ace! Go that way," he commanded, pointing determinately in the direction he wanted. Ace complied immediately, moving in that direction with only slight turbulence.

"And remember not to go underwater this time!" Luffy reminded the Sea King, recalling the last time he'd tried to ride Ace for fun. It had been a complete and utter failure, and he really hoped this time would be different.

Ace groaned loudly in acknowledgment, thankfully understanding the rubber man's sentiments.

"Yosh! And we're off to the Grand Line!" Luffy called out to the world, before on second thought adding, "Again."

* * *

End of Chapter 1

Just for a brief reference, if you couldn't remember exactly which type is which, these are the types of Haki:

1) Kenbunshoku Haki is the sensing type of Haki.

2) Busoshoku Haki is the armor type of Haki that can protect and reinforce the user offensively or defensively, and even allow the user to hit Logia-type Devil Fruit users.

3) Haoshoku Haki is the Conquering King's Haki, the rare type of Haki that only one in a million have that allows the user to overpower the wills of others and even knock weak-willed individuals unconscious.

REVISED


	2. Ridin' Solo

Second chapter is finally here!

I plan on keeping this story pretty fast-paced until we get to Alabasta, where it will then slow down a bit. Alright, that's all, go read!

Disclaimer: I do NOT own One Piece. Ugh.

* * *

Chapter 2

Ridin' Solo

A good week and a half went by, and Luffy still had yet to come across any land.

Riding on Ace had lost most of its appeal after only the first couple of long days doing it. There just wasn't much to do except sit and watch the horizon, or sleep, not to mention the fact that besides Ace he was all alone. There was nothing to entertain him like there always was on the Thousand Sunny, nor any of his nakama to goof off with in order to pass the time.

The only good thing about riding on Ace, besides just how plain awesome it was, was that the Sea King traversed the ocean at a much quicker pace than any regular ship could. They could travel farther faster because the giant sea creature was swimming through the water rather than floating on it like a ship would. Even with that though, they still hadn't reached an island yet.

Luffy soon found himself staring out in the distance for any signs of land, but there never seemed to be any. There was only the blue ocean as far as he could see, all the way until it met the sky on the horizon.

When he set off from Rusukaina, he'd figured he would have already hit land by this time. Instead, the ocean just never ended. It was true he didn't have a Log Pose to navigate, but it was only logical to think that eventually he would have to run into an island, even if they were just moving in a random direction.

It occurred to him that the Grand Line may have been playing tricks on them and they were just going in circles. Or he supposed he and Ace could just be missing islands by some sort of terrible luck, and if that was the case, he really hoped their bad luck would end sometime in the near future. They'd end up back at the beginning of the Grand Line if their fortune didn't look up soon.

Luffy's supply of meat was dwindling fast by this point too, and he estimated he probably only had a couple days worth before it was all gone.

Oh, how he wished Sanji was there. He would have had food, and the chef would be able whip up something delicious like he always could. Luffy really couldn't wait to taste his cook's cooking again when they finally met up at the Thousand Sunny.

And the shortage of food wasn't the worst of it. He had even less drinkable water. He could always catch and eat a wild Sea King if need be, but drinkable water wasn't so easily replenished out there in the middle of the ocean. That especially was beginning to worry him, mostly because the future Pirate King _couldn't _die off alone in the ocean, of a lack of water of all things.

That just wouldn't be right!

Realizing this, he told Ace to go faster in hopes that they'd come across land sooner, but so far that hadn't appeared to help much. All that he'd gotten was more time to consider the less than ideal situation he now found himself in.

In an attempt to take his mind off such troubles, however, he'd tried quite a few things to pass the time.

He'd explored the rest of Ace's monstrous body that was above water level, it was surprisingly vast.

He'd cloud-gazed in the daytime and star-gazed during the night.

He'd done push-ups and sit-ups, and any other little exercises he was able to perform on top of the Sea King to waste time.

He'd even just counted as high as he could in his head at the most boring of times, which actually took up decent portions of time.

He'd tried stretching his rubber arm out as far as it would go before he hit his limit and had to pull it back, multiple times. It honestly accomplished nothing, but just stretching out was pretty nice.

Most importantly, though, he'd had a lot of time to thoroughly ponder Rayleigh's Tone Dial message.

The part about how the old man had managed to sneak past Luffy's Kenbunshoku Haki was what his thoughts focused on the most, but he also wondered what could possibly have caused his mentor to cancel out on meeting up at Sabaody Archipelago. It had to be something big, especially with that cryptic comment the old man had made about seeing Luffy again sooner than he might think. What was that all about?

But in regards to how Rayleigh had delivered the Tone Dial undetected, Luffy was at a bit of a loss. Rayleigh said it was just a clever use of one of the threes type of Haki, so that left only three possibilities.

Unfortunately, that was about as far as he'd narrowed it down to as it could be any one of those three types, depending on how you thought about it.

With Kenbunshoku Haki, which allowed you to sense the presence of other things, could one also go in the opposite direction and conceal your own presence from other Kenbunshoku Haki-users?

Likewise, with Busoshoku Haki, would it be possible to form it around yourself with the intent to hide your spiritual presence, rather than protect yourself from physical damage? That seemed a bit unlikely, sure, but who knew what the limits were.

And with Haoshoku Haki, which allowed you to overpower the wills of people weaker than you, could you "overpower" another person's will and make that person unable to sense them if one didn't want them to, instead of knocking them unconscious?

It was all hypothetical, really, and it could be any one of them, none of them, or maybe all of them. Luffy just didn't know. He'd have to experiment with them before he'd have any real idea.

But doing that was a problem, because he wouldn't be able to know if he was actually doing it right without another Haki user to help him test it. That is, unless he somehow was able to just know he was doing it right by how it felt, but he had no way of telling if doing it right would feel different or not in the first place.

So, on that front he was kind of stuck at the moment, although not for lack of trying.

With that topic brought to a halt, Luffy had begun brainstorming other uses that Haki might possibly have, having remembered another comment Rayleigh had made in his message about expanding on what he already knew.

He'd come up with a few possibilities over the time he'd been traveling. The key word there though was _possibilities_, because even he knew some of them were a bit ridiculous. Even so, he still wanted to try them out before ruling anything out! He was a relatively new user of Haki, after all, and he was still unsure of what limits there might be.

Realistically, Luffy knew there had to be some sort of limit. There had to be some sort of ceiling on that ability, as otherwise you would see the strongest men performing miracles (unrelated to their Devil Fruit powers) at their whims all the time. Yet, on the other hand there were many crazy and unlikely things in the world that happened every day, so who's to say he couldn't do something if he hadn't even attempted it?

OOOOO

It wasn't until the next day that Luffy and Ace finally came across something. It wasn't land though. No, it was a ship – a fleet of probably a dozen ships, rather, that they were approaching nearly head on.

It had been cloudy all day that day, but had yet to rain or anything of the like, Luffy was grateful to note. He hoped it wouldn't start storming too horrifically anytime soon, as he didn't know how well he and Ace would fare in such conditions. So far, the two had had exceptional luck on their journey when it came to weather, for it had been mostly sunny or partly cloudy the entire time. The worst they had to experience was a light rain shower that had shortly abated as Ace swam on, and it would be nice if it stayed that way.

This was when it would have been great to have Nami around, he commiserated with himself. She would have been able to tell him what to expect, and what precautions he should take.

But she wasn't there to depend on. It was just him and his ride.

Luffy and Ace were still quite a ways off from the fleet, so Luffy directed the Sea King to close in. As Ace changed course slightly and neared the group of ships, Luffy got a closer glimpse at the group of ships and found it wasn't a fleet of just any ships.

It was a fleet of _pirate_ ships, by the look of the Jolly Roger on their sails.

He could count thirteen individual ships making up the fleet, sailing loosely in some sort of formation unknown to Luffy. Each of the ships were huge, probably twice the size of the Thousand Sunny, and the head ship at the front of the fleet was even more massive.

At first glance, Luffy didn't recognize the Jolly Roger design, but something about it was definitely familiar. He couldn't pinpoint exactly why it was so familiar though.

The gigantic Sea King was spotted by the ships relatively quickly, not surprisingly, and in a panic the front ships began wildly firing off their cannons at the incoming Sea King. The cannon fire, of course, barely had any effect on Ace, not fazing him in the slightest, and the Sea King continued forward.

Luffy could hear the frantic shouts of the men as Ace finally closed in and leaned down toward the ships as Luffy had instructed.

Luffy grabbed the last barrel of water and the last sack of meat, one under each arm, saying, "Thanks, Ace! You can go do whatever you want for awhile, I'll call when I need you!"

With that, the rubber man leapt off the Sea King in the direction of what looked to be the head ship. Ace roared in agreement before submerging itself into the depths of the ocean, even as Luffy was still in midair.

Luffy whooped as he fell through the air, somehow avoiding crashing through the front ship's deck and landing gracefully in the middle of it, his straw hat now hanging around the back of his neck by its string after having fallen off the top of his head when he was dropping.

Laughing at the rush, he glanced around at the dozens of flabbergasted men standing around him, all of them gaping in stunned bewilderment.

He grinned widely at all of them. "Yo!" he greeted casually, "do you guys have any meat or water I could have?"

One of the pirates nearest him, who had an eye patch over his left eye and was only wearing a baggy pair of tattered pants, recovered first and shut his mouth. He pointed at Luffy in astonishment, his mouth reopening and closing several times.

"W-were you just riding that thing?" the one-eyed pirate finally spluttered after getting his mouth to work, as the others began collecting themselves as well.

"Ace? Yeah! He's my friend!"

All of the men collectively echoed his words in disbelief, "YOUR FRIEND?"

Laughing, the rubber man nodded. "Of course!"

Luffy set the meat bag and the water barrel down beside him. "So you got any meat or water I can borrow?" he questioned them again after they didn't answer him the first time.

The one with the eye patch stepped forward threateningly, "You think we just give free food and drink to intruders?"

"Yeah, we're pirates! We ain't no charity!" shouted another pirate in uproarious agreement. Multiple other jeers erupted throughout the crowd standing on the deck, condemning the mysterious intruder.

"Aw, come on guys! I'm almost out here, help me out!" Luffy responded as he smiled hopefully, fruitlessly trying to persuade the pirates.

The pirates were not amused. "No!" they all yelled together in unison, before starting to crowd around him menacingly, intent on dealing with the intruder in the best way they saw fit.

Luffy watched them as they mobbed together and approached him from all sides, effectively surrounding him. The pirates wickedly grinned at him as they pulled out various weapons, all the way from knives and bats to pistols and shotguns.

He was just about to open his mouth and warn them against such actions, when a door leading below deck was suddenly kicked open with a bang, the force enough to rip the hinges away from the door frame. The broken door landed with another bang on the other side of the deck.

The pirates crowding around him all turned their attention that way immediately, and Luffy realized whoever was coming through that door must be someone important. The rubber man imitated the rest of the pirates, examining the doorway that had just been forced open.

Maybe this person would be nicer than these grunts and give him food and drink, despite their entrance speaking to the contrary.

A large figure stepped out of the doorway, clenching his fists. As the large, muscular man moved further into the light, Luffy could see his face contorted in anger. The big guy had short grey hair with a very light purple hue and was wearing shiny golden armor over his upper torso.

A glimmer of recognition bubbled inside of Luffy, but for the life of him he couldn't put a name to that face.

"Boss!" several of the pirates greeted the man, who was apparently the captain. Luffy tilted his head slightly.

"WHAT'S ALL THIS RACKET DISRUPTING MY SLEEP?" bellowed the man as he slammed the side of his giant fist into the wall beside the door frame, destroying it with ease.

"Sir! There's an intruder! Over there," the pirate speaking told his captain, pointing over at Luffy.

The muscular man glanced in the direction his underling was pointing and finally met Luffy's eyes. Seeing the rubber man, the man's eyes widened and he growled, looking even angrier than he had been just moments ago.

"You!" he roared, "I'll tear you to shreds!"

Luffy's eyebrows rose and his mouth opened in surprise at the grumpy man's words. Waving his hands out in front of him, an alarmed Luffy said, "Oi oi oi! No need for that! I just wanted to see if you guys had any food and drink to spare."

The big man scowled after a pause. "You don't remember me, do you, whelp? Well, let me help you recall then!"

The bulky captain charged Luffy as soon as he finished speaking, knocking away several unlucky members of his crew that were standing in the way as he did so.

Luffy's manner sharpened as he saw the muscular man rushing him, feeling his patience slip away all of the sudden at the unprovoked attack. He cracked his knuckles, waiting for the angry man to reach his position.

The man ran forward and threw a strong right at Luffy, but the rubber man disappeared before the punch could land. Luffy reappeared in the air behind the man, grabbed the back of the bulky man's head before he could react and drove it downward, slamming the man's head face-first into the deck with enough force to make the entire boat shake.

As the sea breeze cleared away the dust, the onlookers all gasped in disbelief. There was a hole in the wooden deck where the now unconscious man's head had hit, and the defeated man was lying there limply.

Luffy stepped back confidently, not even glancing down at his handiwork. He knew his opponent was down and out without needing visible proof. Stunned silence followed, even as he looked around at all of the pirates.

"Don Krieg!" one of them called out worriedly, still aghast at how easily their captain had been taken down in just a matter of seconds.

Luffy blinked.

"The intruder beat Don Krieg in one move! No way…who is he?" another commented in awe, shaking his head and wondering if he was dreaming.

Don Krieg? Luffy blinked again. That was the man's name?

Flashes of images sprang up in his head. East Blue, Sanji, Baratie, golden armor, poison gas, Don Krieg. It was! That's why the Jolly Roger on their sails had seemed so familiar…

He remembered that man now. He also remembered what an evil pirate Don Krieg was, and Luffy decided right there that he didn't regret what he'd just done to the man.

"Should we attack him?" the same pirate with the eye patch from before said aloud, sounding unsure about what he was suggesting.

"Well if he beat the Cap'n then how will we be able to do anything to him?"

"Stupid! He can't take all of us at once, no matter who he is!"

"You're right! Atta-"

One of the Krieg pirates, wearing cargo shorts and a white wife-beater, stepped to the front of the crowd from where he had been standing near the back, interrupting his fellow crew mate. "Wait! I-I remember this guy!"

The pirate with the eye patch shot the other pirate a look, "You do, sir?"

The other pirate nodded. "Yeah, from back before most of you joined us." He looked back into the crowd searchingly, saying, "Reg! You remember that floating sea restaurant from a couple years ago, right?"

Another pirate, Reg, also came forward from within the crowd. "Yeah, so?"

Of course Reg remembered that floating restaurant. How could he not? He and the remains of the Krieg pirate crew had almost starved to death after their first attempt at the Grand Line, and they'd gone there in search of food when Gin had returned claiming he'd been fed for free. That restaurant had also been the only place and time he'd seen Don Krieg actually beaten, by a kid no less!

Reg examined Luffy closer, who had been curiously observing the Krieg pirates up until now. Reggie's eyes widened a bit, "You don't think…"

Gulping, the first pirate to come forward gave a quick nod. "Yeah, it's him, isn't it? The kid who beat Don Krieg last time."

Reg chuckled nervously. "Nah, it can't be…" he said, trailing off uncertainly.

Luffy met Reg's eyes, noting the pirate's heavy swallow. The pirate backed up slightly, "A-actually, I think ya might be right, Lou."

The first pirate, 'Lou', swore under his breath. "I knew it," he said, before realizing the bad situation they were in. "Crap," he added.

Something suddenly occurred to Luffy. Someone was missing. That one guy...

"Hey! Where's Gin? He's still here, isn't he?" he excitedly asked, breaking up their little discussion.

This garnered fearful looks from the pirates, and no one answered him.

"What? Where is he? Tell me!" Luffy demanded, causing a few of the pirates to grimace at his tone. For a second, silence prevailed, before the pirate named Lou shakily responded.

"He's being…punished," the pirate told Luffy awkwardly, folding his arms across his chest.

Luffy stared at the pirate, "What? Why?"

Lou looked down at his feet for a moment, before bringing his head up. "Don Krieg's Former First Mate has wronged the captain one too many times, and ever since then he's been locked up. Don Krieg doesn't tolerate disobedience in his crew."

"Locked up? Where? What did he do?" Luffy glanced around at all of the pirates' wary expressions with suspicion, noting their hesitance to speak on the matter. "Tell me!"

Lou shook his head in aggravation. "It doesn't matter what he did, just that Don Krieg isn't happy with him. He's locked up below deck for his crimes."

Luffy cocked his head slightly, frowning as he let what he'd heard sink in. Gin was locked up somewhere on the ship, and to make matters worse it wasn't just temporary by what Lou had said. Gin looked to be in trouble here - real trouble. Back at the floating restaurant Gin had seemed like the only half-decent member of the Krieg pirates...to leave him suffering in the hands of Don Krieg wouldn't sit well with Luffy, no sir.

The corners of Luffy's mouth twitched back upward. He knew what he had to. It was just a good thing he'd gotten there when he had. His expression suddenly turned serious.

"He's below deck?" Luffy bit out, not waiting for an answer. "Right, you're coming with me then."

Luffy stretched out his arm and grabbed Lou by the collar of his wife-beater, ignoring the man's enraged shout, and dragged him along as he moved toward one of the doors leading below deck.

The moment after Luffy began moving, all of the other Krieg pirates jumped into action.

"ATTACK THE INTRUDER!"

"HE'S GOT THE FIRST MATE! KILL HIM!"

Luffy took a leap over the mob of pirates and landed next to the door he wanted, slipping inside with Lou. It seemed he was the new First Mate.

"You're the one that replaced Gin!" Luffy exclaimed in surprise, shutting the door to the deck and barricading it with a refrigerator, an oven, and anything else large enough that he could find in the room they'd entered.

Evidently they were in the kitchen. And it was conveniently empty of people.

There was a long island-counter in the middle of the room, creating an aisle of sorts around its borders. Racks holding pots and pans hung from the ceiling above the island counter, while shelves secured to the walls above the counters lining the walls held plates, bowls, glasses, and other appropriate kitchenware. Other assorted drawers and cupboards below the counters and on the walls probably contained even more kitchen supplies.

Most importantly, however, there was a door on the other side of the kitchen that they would be able to take to exit the room safely.

"Yep, that's me," Lou confirmed confidently. "But you don't think I'll actually lead you to Gin, do you? I'm the second-in-command, after all, you think I would cave so easily?" said Lou, pulling two pistols out of a nearby cabinet after Luffy had released him in order to barricade the door.

"Yeah, I do," Luffy replied, glaring at the other pirate.

Pointing the two firearms at Luffy, Lou fired them both off multiple times without hesitation. A smirk marred the man's face as he saw the bullets had connected, but it vanished when he realized something wasn't right.

And then the bullets rebounded back at him, one of them barely missing his left hip. Shrieking, Lou stared at the rubber man in fear as Luffy just grinned in response.

"Won't work," Luffy told the pirate, who fell to his knees in disbelief. The intruder had just deflected at least half a dozen bullets – there wasn't anything else he could do to the monster. Don Krieg was the only one who could stand up to this freak, and after the straw hat had managed to luckily defeat the Captain earlier, they were in trouble.

Luffy grabbed the man's arm after a moment, hearing the banging and thumping coming from the barricaded door in the background, letting him know that the other pirates were still attempting to get through it.

"Now, show me to Gin," Luffy said to Lou, who reluctantly acquiesced. Not that he had a choice.

OOOOO

Billy leaned back in the wooden chair, putting his feet up on the corner of the table he was seated nearby. He folded his arms in front of himself as he let out a dull sigh, wishing he was anywhere else at that moment. Even the crow's nest was better than jail duty.

Glancing at the two prisoners currently occupying two of the eight available cells, the Krieg pirate zeroed in on his former superior. The man that had fallen out of favor was sitting in the center of his cell, his head lowered just enough that Billy couldn't tell if he was asleep or not. Either way, it didn't really matter, as the man wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Thinking of Gin, Billy reminded himself that it was about time for the ex-First Mate's daily bread and water. Don Krieg wouldn't forgive anyone if the man succumbed to starvation before the captain's say-so. The pirate shivered at the thought. To be on the receiving end of the captain's ire was not something Billy would wish on anyone, much less himself.

Turning to the other occupant of the small jail, Billy shook his head. The little brat had finally stopped crying, thankfully. Through the bars of her cell, he could see the annoying little girl sitting in the back of her cell, her arms wrapped around her knees with her head resting atop them. The only thing telling him that she was indeed awake was the slight tremble that went through her body every so often.

Unlike Gin, the girl had to be kept in better condition, so when her mealtime came around she would receive a good old bowl of slop and two glasses of water. It was practically a feast compared to what the former First Mate was getting.

That only went to show what disobeying the Don would get you, Billy mused to himself as he habitually adjusted his bandana.

Just then, there were three loud knocks on the jail door, disrupting his thoughts. Squinting in confusion, Billy dropped his feet from the table and stood up before making his way over to the door.

"Is my shift up already?" Billy wondered aloud as he pulled open the door, only to be met with a fist in his face.

OOOOO

The fat pirate with a bandana on his head collapsed from Luffy's blow, earning a satisfied grin from the rubber man.

With Lou in tow, Luffy stepped into the jail over the other pirate's limp body. Luffy's smile died when he looked around the cramped room.

There was a wide area up front near the door, with a couple of chairs and a table over to one side, before it led into a narrow aisle down the middle of the room, in between rows of small cells on either side. It looked like there were only four cells on each side, as there was only enough space for that many in the crowded jail.

A frail and gaunt bearded man that could only be Gin stared at him from the first cell on the right. His brown hair was a little longer than it used to be. He looked like he was just skin and bones, and Luffy noted with a twinge that he was bruised up quite a bit.

A dirty gray shirt hung from his body along with shorts in a similar state.

"Gin…" Luffy uttered in shock at the man's condition.

Luffy snapped his head around to glare at Lou, who he was holding by the arm. He tightened his grip on Lou as his anger rose and clenched his other fist.

"What is this," he growled at Krieg's new First Mate, demanding an explanation for Gin's less than satisfactory health. "Why does he look like Brooke?!"

Lou gulped, looking at Luffy fearfully. Stuttering, he answered, "W-well, he is b-being punished. D-Don Krieg o-ordered it so."

Lou scrunched his eyes up, preparing as much as he could for the inevitable hit. When it didn't come, he opened one eye a bit, but closed it again at the rubber man's steely look. Luffy gritted his teeth, itching to punch the man, but he abstained with the realization that he may still need him.

Luffy turned back to see Gin watching him quizzically, almost like he couldn't quite remember Luffy's name. When he met the man's eyes, they widened.

"…Luffy?" said Gin in a raspy voice, blinking a few times to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. "What are you…" he trailed off, leaving the rest of his question unspoken as he continued staring.

"Gin! I'm getting you out of here," he addressed the thin man sharply.

Gin averted his eyes. Raising a skinny hand up, Gin pointed over to the cell across the middle aisle, "Help her first."

Confused, Luffy glanced in the direction the former First Mate was gesturing. He stepped forward a few hurried steps, dragging Lou none too gently, and once again whipped his head back around to Lou in disgust at what he saw.

If anything his steely look had only become more intense after seeing a small girl huddled inside the dark corner of the other cell.

"Damn it...a little girl! What's wrong with you people?!" Luffy angrily asked the unfortunate pirate he had a hold of, simultaneously shaking him roughly.

Lou whimpered. "I-I'm s-sorry! I-It was Don Krieg's o-orders!"

"Don't give me that crap," Luffy snarled impatiently. "Why is she locked up here? What have you done to her?"

"W-we were sent to k-kidnap her for m-money! T-that's it, I swear! We h-haven't done anything else! S-someone Don Krieg knows asked us to do it, that's all!"

Luffy blew out a frustrated breath, glancing over to Gin. "Is he telling the truth, Gin?"

Gin nodded weakly, "Yep, 's far as I know. Haven't been privy to much info lately, ya know?"

Acknowledging that by grimacing, Luffy asked, "How long have you and her been here? I thought you said you were done following Krieg after I beat him last time."

"…I don't know how long I've been here. I haven't really been keeping track," Gin lamely told him, leaning his head back against the back wall of his cell.

Luffy gave Lou an expectant look.

"The girl's o-only been here a week. Gin…he's been here for probably a month now," Lou revealed quickly, shrinking away.

"I was done following him, Luffy, I was," Gin went on, addressing Luffy's latter comment. "But...well, after the Baratie things changed. I decided to stay and we sailed around for awhile just trying to rebuild the crew and our fleet so that we could travel back to the Grand Line again. It was working out pretty well for us, and Don Krieg was getting stronger all the time. We figured we'd actually have a real chance in the Grand Line, so we came here several months ago."

Gin shrugged, coughing a bit. "Ever since we got here though, Don Krieg's been getting us into some real bad stuff. Dangerous stuff. We've already lost a good portion of the crew we came to the Grand Line with, and it's only a matter of time before we're all killed. It's just been one thing after another, so I tried to put a stop to it. Most of the crew agreed with me on this even, that we needed to stop-"

"Let me guess, Don Krieg wouldn't listen?"

Gin bobbed his head, "Yeah, not only me either, he wouldn't even hear out the rest of the crew. Long story short, I ended up down here and he hasn't stopped. And now we've abducted some girl for who knows what reason! I'm sorry, Luffy, I should have listened to you and Sanji back then and got out while I still could."

Narrowing his eyes, Luffy dropped Lou's arm and told him to stay, before moving over to the front of Gin's cell.

He kicked the gated door in, breaking it open. "You can help me get her out, alright? And I'm getting you off this boat too."

Gin put a bony hand up to his forehead. "Why are you here, Luffy? Why are you helping me? After what I did at the Baratie and after I stayed with Don Krieg all this time, you should just let me rot."

"Because I know you aren't a bad person, Gin," Luffy answered seriously, grabbing the man's hand and pulling him to his feet. "Now, come on. Let's get outta here!"

Gin wobbled a bit shakily, but soon regained himself. "But how, Luffy? I don't know how you got down here, but Don Krieg won't let us go so easily."

"We'll be fine," Luffy assured him. "I've got a ride waiting for us, you know."

Gin considered the rubber man in front of him for a moment. "I...I've been ready to get away from this life for awhile now, I think. Not sure what I'll do if we get away from here alive…but hey, that can come later! Right?"

Luffy nodded, a grin on his face.

"Anyway...say, Luffy, how's that other guy doing? Is he with you still?"

"Sanji? Yeah, he's still in my crew," Luffy told him, smile widening at the mention of his cook. "Sorry though, he's not here now. We're all meeting back up in a few months. The Straw Hats took a little vacation, you could say."

"Ah," Gin replied neutrally. "That explains it. I wondered why you would be this far back in the Grand Line. How long have you been sailing here in the Grand Line? A couple of years at least, right?"

"Yep, somewhere around that long. Right now I'm just killing time until all of us meet back up…that's actually sort of how I ended up coming across this ship and finding you. Weird."

"Well I'm not complaining," Gin said. "I'd still be locked up in here if you hadn't shown up."

Luffy gave him a nod, "We should go. Can you fight?"

"Not very well I'd bet, but I probably look worse off than I really am. Hygiene hasn't been a top priority for awhile."

Luffy accepted that grimly. He walked over to the little girl's cell, who had silently been watching them with wide eyes ever since Luffy had entered the jail. Gin followed him a moment later.

After subtly checking to see if Lou the pirate had listened and stayed put, which he had, Luffy moved up against the bars and squatted down so that he was closer to being on the sitting girl's level.

She was young, couldn't have been older than 8 or 9. Her hair was a vibrant dark green color, though its overall unclean condition sullied it a bit. Brown, uncertain eyes stared back at him as he looked down at her.

He tried to put on his friendliest smile, showing her he meant her no harm.

"Hey, I'm here to help. I'm getting you out of here!" Luffy told her, getting her to raise her head up further in response. It looked like she didn't know whether to believe him or not, as if she thought it might be some bad joke or something.

His smile lessened as he continued peering at her, taking in more of her less than adequate condition.

She was very grimy and dirty, most likely due to her kidnapping, and Luffy could see evidence of tear streaks running down her pale cheeks. His resolve tightened as he thought about what the Krieg pirates had put her through. He couldn't even imagine what she must have been thinking in that situation, a little girl being abducted and all alone with these pitiful excuses for men. It was something that no little girl should have had to experience.

It made his blood boil, frankly, but he quelled his growing temper so that he could better focus on more important things. For instance, getting the girl out of her cage and away to safety.

In need of something to vent his anger out on, Luffy wasted no time in ripping the cell door off its hinges, tossing it aside where it clattered noisily on the wood floor. For some reason, just doing that one action was immensely satisfying to him.

At his forceful movement, the girl scooted further into the corner, clearly alarmed.

Putting his hands up in a placating fashion, Luffy said, "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you." He stepped into the cell, crouching down a bit. "Are you hurt at all?"

The girl paused for a moment, before shaking her head. He continued inching toward her, noting how tense she was the closer he got. A few steps away from her, he halted, holding out his hand.

"C'mon now, I'll get you out of here, and away from these guys," he said, trying to exude warmth so as not to frighten her. After what she'd been through, he wouldn't be surprised if she shied away from him despite his claims to free her.

The girl bit her bottom lip nervously, glancing from his face to his outstretched hand several times. He wondered what was going on inside her head at that moment, but wasn't sure what else he could really do to make her trust him.

She eventually looked down at her curled up feet, only looking back up when he spoke again.

Luffy retracted his hand slightly when she didn't take it, simply saying, "What's your name?"

The pale girl sniffled. "Kimiko," she quietly answered, her voice small. She looked positively miserable. With good reason, he supposed.

He shook himself, another smile forming, "Nice to meet you, Kimiko. I'm Luffy!" Kimiko's eyes widened a bit at his loud introduction, not removing her eyes from him as he went on. "So, where are you from Kimiko? Where did these men…take…you from?"

Still eyeing him, Kimiko mumbled, "Martasa."

Her bottom lip began trembling as if she were trying to hold back a sob.

Luffy frowned, both because he did not wish to upset her and because he had no idea where this Martasa was. Or what it was, for that matter. Was it a town? A village? Or was it an island? It could have even been a ship for all that he knew.

"Hey now, no worries, I'll make sure you get back home safely. I promise!" Luffy grinned confidently, trying to calm her down.

Kimiko looked at him hopefully, choking a bit on her words. "R-really? You would do that?"

He took a step closer to her. "Of course! These people had no right kidnapping you."

Aware that she'd noticed him move next to her, Luffy once again offered her a hand. "Here, Kimiko, take my hand so I can get you out of here. I won't let them hurt you anymore!"

The green-haired girl gave him a watery smile, hesitantly reaching out and placing a small, delicate hand in his.

"Okay," she agreed, as he helped her up. She was rather short, only coming up to his waistline. Not that he expected anything different, seeing as how she was a child.

Her nose scrunched up as she looked down at herself, apparently not liking her unkempt and grimy state very much. The flowery kid dress she was wearing was ruined beyond repair and she seemed quite upset about that.

When the girl looked back up to him, noticing him watching her, she smiled meekly at him.

"Cheer up, Kimiko, you'll be home in no time!"

Luffy started escorting her out of the cramped cell and over to the door, where Gin and Lou were trading a few words of their own. Shockingly, it appeared that they weren't at odds.

As Luffy approached, holding Kimiko's hand at his side, he was able to hear part of their conversation.

"…don't blame you, Lou. You don't have to apologize to me."

Lou put a hand on Gin's shoulder. "Oh, well, Gin…look…again, it's nothing personal. I'm just following the captain's orders, y'know? I don't have the balls to go against him like you did."

Gin gave him a nod, "Yeah, gotcha. No hard feelings."

Luffy, not being able to take it any longer, broke in with an incredulous look on his face. "Gin! After everything they did, you're going to forgive them just like that? Why?"

Sighing, Gin shook his head and turned to Luffy. "Luffy, the main problem is Don Krieg. Not the crew. Lou here isn't one of the bad ones."

Lou nodded appreciatively at Gin's admission, confirming his words.

The rubber man grunted in confusion, shrugging. "Huh, I don't get it at all. But whatever, do what you want. I'm getting hungry now, so let's just get outta here."

Rubbing his belly lightly with the hand that was not holding Kimiko's, Luffy remembered something he was going to ask.

"Hey, Kimiko," he said, looking down at her. "So where is this Martasa? Is it in the Grand Line?"

Kimiko opened her mouth, but then shut it, her small eyes narrowing. "Y-you don't know where to go?"

"Well, no," Luffy scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, chuckling. "I haven't been there before so I don't know how to get there. Do you?"

Kimiko dropped his hand, giving him a disappointed look. "Not without a Log. Don't you know anything?"

"Don't worry, Kimiko, we just need to find one of those Logs for Martasa then!"

Gin cleared his throat. "The Krieg pirates have an Eternal Pose to Martasa, Luffy. I know for a fact the guy who hired Don Krieg gave him one."

Luffy gave Kimiko a lopsided grin, "See, Kimi! We're fine. We just have to take theirs!"

Kimiko didn't say anything, but seemed to accept it nonetheless.

Luffy glanced at Gin. "Who's this guy that hired you all? Do you know why he wanted Kimiko?"

Gin met Lou's eyes, nodding slightly at the new First Mate. "Lou here would know more than I would. I was locked up shortly after we were hired."

They all turned to Lou. Lou looked a little hesitant about revealing the information, aware of what the consequences would be.

Gin put a hand on his mate's shoulder, "Don doesn't have to know you said anything. I certainly won't tell him. Besides, you can always just say Luffy forced you to tell him. Yeah?"

Tilting his head, Lou appeared to consider Gin's words. "Right. Well, the guy, I don't know his name. Even the Captain doesn't know it, he only knows _of_ him. The man contacted Don Krieg and told him to meet him on Ilias. So that's where me and Don went."

Lou shrugged. "That's all I know. Although, when we got to the meeting place, I don't think we met the same guy that first contacted the Captain. Whoever that man was, he sent someone else to the meeting to relay the details of the mission."

Luffy blinked as he thought about what Lou had just told them. Whoever hired the Krieg pirates obviously wanted to stay anonymous, but for what reason? There was definitely something odd about all of this.

"Where did you meet?" he asked Lou, causing the pirate to contract his eyebrows.

"Uh…it was some place called The Tally, or The Tilly. Or maybe The Telly. I'm not sure," Lou replied uncertainly, a hand rising to his chin.

It was probably someplace nondescript, Luffy figured, somewhere where they wouldn't draw attention. Whoever this shady mystery man was, Luffy didn't like him already. Anyone that hired people to kidnap little girls was probably not the most upstanding citizen out there.

"So where were you supposed to take her then? Back to that place?" Luffy inquired, wondering if maybe there was a way he might be able to confront the man. Or at least whoever he sent in his place.

Lou shook his head, "Yeah, we were just told to hand her off there as soon as we were able. That's when we're getting the rest of our pay too."

Luffy was silent as he contemplated. Maybe he would have to stop by…and teach whoever was waiting there a lesson. It's not like he was in a hurry to do something else or anything. He still had a couple months until he was due at the Thousand Sunny.

His thoughts were abruptly interrupted by shouts outside the jail.

"I found him! He's in the jail!" a pirate yelled from in the hallway leading to the jail, pointing at Luffy and running forward toward the open door to the jail.

Others made to follow, letting out battle cries, but before any could enter the jail Luffy rushed over and slammed the door shut. He locked it with the deadbolt, and barricaded it as well as possible with the table and chairs available.

"Looks like they finally caught up to you," Gin observed grimly. "How did you get so far ahead of them anyway? I figured they would have been down here by now."

Luffy didn't say anything back, too busy situating the table up against the door, so Lou enlightened him.

"He barricaded the door through the kitchen, so all of them had to go around the long way below deck. I don't think it'll work as well this time though…" he finished, a tinge of hopefulness coloring his voice just as banging could be heard on the other side of the door as the Krieg pirates attempted to break through. It rattled from the battering, threatening to give in.

Gin agreed, less happily than Lou of course.

Kimiko screamed, her eyes wide as she tugged on the edge of Luffy's shorts, "Mister! How are we going to get out of here with all of them out there?"

"We'll be fine, Kimiko, calm down. Here, come here," he said, bending down and picking her up.

She threw her arms over his shoulders and around his neck, wrapping her legs tightly around his abdomen as his left arm went around her back, supporting her. Sniffing, she closed her eyes and put her head onto his shoulder, resting her face into where his left shoulder met his neck. Not loosening her grip, Kimiko tried to drown out everything, focusing on the strong arms holding her.

Luffy adjusted himself to the added weight before facing Gin, hurriedly asking, "Gin, what's above us?"

This drew a confused glance from the former First Mate, but he responded anyway. "Er, the deck, Luffy. Why?"

Luffy grinned deviously, "Great!"

Without preamble, the rubber man flung his right foot upward, kicking _through_ the ceiling of the jail as hard as he could. Wood splintered against his sandaled foot and a wide hole was ripped opened above them from the force he put behind the kick, as wood literally erupted up and over the deck of the ship. Some flew up high and landed out into the water, but much of it was not disposed of so nicely, instead falling straight back down onto the ship.

Gin and Lou both dropped their jaws, but were quickly forced to put their arms up over their face to deflect the falling remains of the jail ceiling.

"What the f-" cried Lou, though the rest of his words were drowned out by the noise of both the wood clattering all over the place and the collective shouts of discord from up on the deck at the raining wood.

Shielding Kimiko against him, Luffy stretched his free arm up to the top of the hole and pulled himself up and onto the deck, carefully avoiding the jagged, splintered edges of the hole even while wood bits continued showering down on them. He mostly ignored the flying wood pieces, taking only enough care to ensure that none hit the girl in his arms.

He shot his free arm back down into the jail and grabbed Gin by the collar of his ratty shirt, who in a panic latched onto Lou just as Luffy's arm began retracting, ending up roughly flinging both of them up atop the deck where they landed in a clumsy pile of limbs.

Groaning, the two sorely rose to their feet, cursing the rubber man.

Cracking his fists in annoyance, Gin aggressively turned to Luffy, ready to show him just what exactly he thought about being thrown about like a rag doll. However, all thoughts of scolding Luffy fizzled out when he became fully aware of their surroundings.

He froze at what welcomed them.

Luffy patted Kimiko on the back, prompting her to raise her head and glance around. "We got out of there, Kimi. Look! We're free…" he trailed off as he also scanned his surroundings with wide eyes.

All around them, hundreds of pirates stood crowded together filling up the wide deck area, all of them carrying an assortment of weapons and glaring at him menacingly. He didn't remember this many men being up here when he'd first arrived…

Laughing nervously, he greeted them, "What's up, guys?"

Kimiko whimpered, clutching him tighter. She knew it was hopeless though. There was practically an entire army surrounding them.

Luffy gave her a reassuring squeeze as his attention focused on all of the pirates, who by now were steadily closing in.

"I'm not looking for any trouble here, just let me go and we'll be good," he tried, smilingly winningly at as many of his opponents as possible.

"Luffy, there's too many of them. I don't think even you can take all of them at once," Gin warned quietly from behind him, where he was standing next to Lou.

All of the pirates now surrounding them provided Lou with all of the courage he needed. Smugly stepping away from Gin with a smirk, his submissive attitude did a 180 degree turn as he joined his ship mates.

The new First Mate faced Luffy. "Face it, punk, we'll overwhelm you now. Reinforcements have arrived from the other ships in our fleet, and you can't win against all of us. Surrender," the pirate demanded, sneering at Luffy.

Lou next looked to Gin, "Gin, help us fight and you might be forgiven. Don Krieg might let you go then. Or you can die with this fool. It's your choice." The former First Mate's only outward reaction to Lou's words was a slight widening of his eyes, but Luffy could tell that Gin's thoughts were reeling as he weighed his options.

Kimiko shifted in Luffy's arms a bit, but kept her head buried in his shoulder, as if that would make it all go away. Silently making sure she was still okay, Luffy swiveled around and glanced over at Gin curiously, wondering what he was going to do. He'd let the man make his choice now, before he took care of all these other Krieg pirates.

If Gin stayed by his side, then great. Everything would be dandy. But if Gin decided to abandon him now and join the enemy, then so be it. He'd end up on the losing side if he did that, but it would be his own fault. Luffy honestly wasn't sure which way Gin would lean, as he'd only met him that one time at the Baratie, but he hoped the man would make the right decision here.

Gin did not meet his eyes, instead looking at Lou resolutely. "So it's like that then, is it, Lou? Where is Don Krieg anyway? Why isn't he here?"

Lou's expression darkened at the question. "That guy with the straw hat beat him," he said shortly, giving Luffy a cutting glance as he did so.

"Wh-…he did? Again?" Gin responded in disbelief, raising his eyebrows. "But how? Don Krieg even ate a Devil Fruit to become stronger."

He finally made eye contact with Luffy, shaking his head as if he couldn't believe Krieg would lose again.

"Huh? Did he really?"

"Wait, didn't Lou just say you fought him?" Gin asked in confusion, looking at Lou questioningly. "Shouldn't you have seen it then?"

"I guess I didn't really give him the chance to show me," Luffy laughed.

Lou nodded reluctantly, "He knocked the Boss out in one blow, Gin. Lucky shot if you ask me."

Gin whistled at that, but Luffy looked indignant. "Oi, stupid! That was not just a lucky shot, I'll have you know!"

Many shouts of disagreement from the Krieg pirates surrounding them met Luffy's claim.

"Don Krieg is the best!"

"He wouldn't lose so easily like that normally!"

"Liar! The Don just wasn't trying, he was sleepy!"

"The Boss is strong, you got lucky, kid!"

Luffy was about to scream out how delusional they all were, but Lou's low toned speaking halted him. "Well, Gin? What's it gonna be?"

Luffy watched Gin, practically seeing the man's brain cogs turning.

Would he stay on Luffy's side? Or switch back to the Krieg pirates at the apparent overwhelming odds? It was a toss up, the pressure and tension rising as the entire boat full of men waited to hear Gin's answer with bated breath.

Finally, Krieg's ex-First Mate made a decision.

"I'm not a Krieg pirate, and I haven't been one for awhile, Lou," Gin started out, a shit-eating grin forming across his face. "I'm sticking with Luffy, even if it means death. So bring it on, you guys!" Gin declared, relieving Luffy slightly as the gaunt man maneuvered his body into a weak defensive stance.

Luffy grinned, the man was about to find out that he'd just made the right choice.

Gin stepped closer to Luffy, facing the opposite way so they were back-to-back. Grunting, Gin took a shaky breath. "Sorry, Luffy, but I won't be much help here. I don't have my tonfa, not to mention my weak body."

Luffy hadn't really expected much from him anyway, so this didn't surprise him all that much. "No worries, Gin. We'll be fine," he replied, though Gin probably took it as empty, optimistic words.

Lou was not as happy about Gin's answer as Luffy was. "Gin! If that's how you want it, then...fine! Just remember, you chose this! Don't blame me when you're thrown back in your cell!"

Gin's jaw tightened, slowly glancing around at his former crew mates. "All of you guys, you should take a close look at what you want here. Don Krieg will only lead you to devastation if you keep on letting him, and I know most of you agree with this! It wasn't that long ago that you were backing me when I first brought this up with him!"

Lou scoffed before raising his hand into the air, now clutching a sword. "Men! Enough chatter! Capture Gin, but kill the intruder! We must avenge the Captain's defeat! ATTACK!"

* * *

And that's a wrap, people. Well, not really. Heh.

Not a masterpiece by any means, but I hope it was at least somewhat entertaining. Until next time...


	3. Whoa

Definitely been awhile, but here's the next one!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece.

* * *

Chapter 3

Whoa

Battle cries pierced the tranquil sea breeze as the Krieg Pirates collectively surged forward, aiming to kill the intruder standing in the center of the deck of their flagship.

The exact same guy that a few of them had seen in action a few years ago. The one who'd defeated their Captain twice now (out of pure luck, of course). The one who had kidnapped the First Mate and was currently in the process of springing the former First Mate. The one who had just punched a giant hole through the deck of their main ship.

That guy with the straw hat was about to feel the might of the Krieg Pirates. He would painfully regret ever boarding their ship!

Or so they thought. They were wrong.

OOOOO

Gin tensed up in his fighting stance, immediately seeing the futility in facing off against this crowd of his former crew.

He almost just surrendered right then. He almost changed his mind - he could switch back to _their_ side. He would be leaving Luffy high and dry if he did that, that was true, but as unfortunate as that was, Gin had to look after himself too. He knew he'd be doing a horrible thing to the rubber kid, oh he definitely knew that, but the treacherous thoughts came regardless.

Surely, Luffy would understand. Because seriously, Gin asked himself, what good would it do for both of them to go down here?

If he turned back to Lou and his former crew now, maybe Don Krieg _would_ let him go, eventually. After this was all over, maybe he'd be free. It was looking more and more tempting when compared to what he was going up against. Gin reconsidered his choice for what felt like the hundredth time in minutes.

His thoughts twisted.

But no, he knew Don Krieg better than most. That man didn't have a merciful bone in his body, there was no way he'd let Gin go. He knew that, he did, and yet there was still a chance his former Captain could surprise him. Maybe Don Krieg would let him go, maybe the man would forgive him for his betrayal. The odds of that happening certainly had to be better than fighting several hundred men with just Luffy at his side and winning. Even if the boy was strong...there was no way Luffy could take on this many at once. No one would be able to.

His churning mind was convinced of all of this, and his body was about to put his indecisive musings into action, when he stopped.

No, he couldn't do this. Who was he kidding? Nothing he did would help him here, no matter what he did or which side he took. He was screwed either way, he realized. His own actions and decisions had all led him to this point - he could blame no one but himself for the position he was in. He'd dug his own grave here, so now all he could do was lie in it.

No sense in squirming around uselessly.

Yes, Gin almost flipped sides and rejoined his former mates. He almost caved in. But he didn't, instead sticking with his original decision. And moments later, he would be overwhelmingly grateful for that choice.

OOOOO

Luffy took a calming breath. Closing his eyes, he forced himself to concentrate despite the blaring distractions all around him as the crowd of enemy pirates charged. His focus inside, Luffy delved deep within himself.

He searched meticulously through the void until he came across that familiar stone well, the one he'd visualized just like he'd been taught to by Rayleigh.

Using Haoshoku Haki intentionally was a lot different and more complicated than using it subconsciously, in that it required a bit more effort on his part in order to find it within himself and from there actually harness it.

The biggest task in learning to use it was all the work it had taken just to achieve the initial step of constructing the well within his mental void that he could draw it from. From there it had been downhill, just mastering the process of locating the well at a moment's notice.

And that's what he was doing right now. He'd take all of them out in one burst, hopefully.

It would be the first time he'd tried using his Haki on real human opponents, apart from Rayleigh, who with a such monstrous will like that man's was an entirely different thing to accomplish.

Rayleigh definitely couldn't be considered weak-minded like his opponents undoubtedly were now. There were a lot of them though, which might make up for that. He wasn't entirely sure how much of an effect using his Haki on a higher number of weaker enemies compared to one strong-minded individual would have...his inexperience was very much apparent here.

It'd just have to be trial and error, Luffy decided. He wouldn't know more without trying, after all.

Realizing he was dawdling much too long, Luffy finally acted.

He imagined the well, filled to the brim with the silvery, molasses-like liquid he likened to his Haki. He imagined it with pressure growing at its bottom, and the viscous material within reacted immediately to his thoughts. As if a lava dome volcano suddenly erupted, the thick liquid exploded upward out of the well in its entirety, leaving none behind.

He didn't know exactly how much of a force he needed to release, so he just threw it all out there. It was better to be safe than sorry.

Clenching his fists, Luffy wrestled for control over the large amount of Haki with more than a little effort. Successful, he visualized the sudden explosion of unchecked willpower thinning out, altering it from its highly viscous state to one very similar to water.

Luffy snapped his eyes open seconds later, triggering the spiritual dam that had been holding it all back to fall. The resulting flood rolled out of him in waves, finally spurting outward around him in all directions like an invisible liquid scythe.

He knew he'd managed victory as soon as he'd relinquished the last of it, feeling it crashing into and overtaking the ambition of all around him except for Kimi and Gin. Protecting his allies from his Haoshoku Haki was the easiest part, despite what he'd originally thought when first learning. It was as simple as focusing on their respective beings with his Kenbunshoku sense and simultaneously guiding his Haki wave around them.

A grin spread across his face as he heard subsequent thumps signaling the mass of unconscious bodies hitting the deck.

OOOOO

Kimiko squeezed the stranger, Luffy his name was, tighter. She didn't know why exactly, but she trusted him. He was just that sort of person. He'd come and taken her out of that jail, where all the bad men had stuck her. He'd said he would take her back home. And while she believed him, at the moment she was afraid. Very afraid.

She may have only been 8, but she understood lots of adult things. Like, for instance, numbers. Two against two hundred was not a fair fight, and it was impossible for the side with only two good guys on it to win. There were just too many bad guys...it made her want to cry. She _was_ crying, actually, right into Luffy's shoulder. Her sobs went unnoticed amidst the roars and shouts of all the bad men, however.

She tried valiantly to block it all out, of course. All the yelling and jeering, all the thunderous pounding of feet trampling over the deck, all the chaotic commotion closing in on her and Luffy. Her efforts to drown it all out sort of worked. Not as much as she'd have liked them to, but they helped somewhat. She just shut her eyes tightly and dug herself into Luffy's shoulder as far as she could, finding it safe and warm.

There wasn't much else she could do. If only Father and his men were here to help, the bad men would stand no chance. No one could stand up to him, no one could hurt her if he was there. If only he was there, Father would show them what happened to pirates.

But he wasn't there. No, Father was probably still looking for her elsewhere. Some-

Her thoughts were cut off as a soothing hand rubbed her back, and she suddenly heard Luffy's voice telling her that it was over and that everything was okay. Backing up his words, she realized that all the shouts and cries of battle had ceased by this point.

Now, it was quiet, except for a single gasp of surprise that came from somewhere nearby.

As she opened her eyes, Kimiko deduced that it had come from the man who had been in the jail with her.

OOOOO

Gin gasped.

Out of nowhere he watched his former crew mates all fall limply to the deck. His eyes widened in disbelief and he glanced over to his left at Luffy to see how the rubber man was taking this turn of events, but was shocked to see him unperturbed.

Had Luffy done this? No, certainly not, Luffy's Devil Fruit was the Gomu Gomu no Mi. Whatever had happened definitely had nothing to do with rubber. But if it wasn't Luffy, then what had happened?

"Wha-...what was that?" Gin stuttered, blinking and shaking his head several times to make sure he wasn't just imagining things. "How...?"

Luffy faced him, chuckling. "It's a sec-ret," he finally said in amusement, enjoying watching Gin swivel around in bewilderment at the sudden demise of the Krieg pirates.

The ship's deck was literally covered in unconscious bodies now, so much so that you'd be hard-pressed to spy the bare wooden deck below anywhere outside of the small, open circular space around where Luffy, Gin, and Kimiko stood. Really, it looked as if the three of them had been standing in the calm eye of a hurricane, while all the men around them had not been so lucky.

Kimiko herself had been silent up until then, gazing around in amazement from where Luffy still held her. She clamped her wide open mouth shut as she recovered, realizing how un-ladylike she was being. Mother would have had a fit if she'd been there to see that. But Mother _wasn't_ here, she reminded herself.

"Whoa!" Kimiko let out in awe as Luffy put her down. "They're...they're all dead! Those pirates have been stopped! It's a miracle...we're saved!"

She skipped around for a moment or two in happiness, gushing about how amazing it all was before turning back to Luffy and Gin, who had both been watching her dancing around in excitement. She blushed a bright red as her shyness kicked in.

"Not dead, Kimi," Luffy corrected seriously. "Knocked out."

"Oh, right!" She agreed, looking down a little sheepishly. She looked up after a pause, quipping, "I knew that!"

"Sure you did," he replied, the corners of his mouth quirking a bit. Her raised spirits were a good sign after what she'd just been through.

Luffy glanced over at Gin only to find that he'd moved over next to Lou's unconscious body and was kneeling by it. Gin stood up, seemingly finished examining his downed former crew mate.

"They're still breathing, just knocked out like you said, Luffy," Gin confirmed needlessly. Luffy already knew that, after all.

"But...who helped us?" came the inevitable question from Kimiko, as she settled down and looked around in wonder. "They must have been _super_ strong. Like a super hero!"

Gin and Luffy both looked at her, the latter a half-hidden smile on his face. Kimiko saw Luffy's apparent amusement at her words.

Kimiko flushed in embarrassment again. "Hey! I _know_ super heroes aren't real, I'm not a little kid you know! But...what happened then? Who else would have saved us?"

Luffy shrugged, glancing sideways over at Gin, who was eyeing him suspiciously.

"Who knows?" He turned back to Kimiko. For some reason he was finding it much more entertaining to just chalk it all up to mystery. "Maybe it _was_ a super hero..."

Kimiko giggled for the first time since he'd met her. Luffy was glad to see her cheering up so quickly. "I wasn't _serious_ when I said that. Anyone smart enough knows super heroes are made up!"

Luffy gave her a wide grin, his eyes closed and teeth showing. "If you say so. I still think it was a super hero."

"Well...well, then you're dumb!" The insult surprised Luffy and Gin both. Luffy gaped at her momentarily, laughing out loud as he recovered. Gin coughed into his hand in amusement.

She suddenly took on a look of deep thinking. "I bet it was the World Gov-...the World Govner-...the World Govnernant," she revealed, stumbling over the last word with a slight frown.

Gin raised an eyebrow, "You mean the World Government? Why would they..."

"Because!" Kimiko hastily interrupted, upset at having to be corrected. "Father says their strong, and that they fight all the pirates. It makes sense they would help us!"

Gin looked skeptical. "But why wouldn't they stick around afterward, brat?"

"Maybe they were busy," Luffy offered seriously, at the same time as Kimiko grew incensed.

"Did you just call me a brat, old man?" she asked tightly, taking on a sulky expression.

Gin nodded, unrepentant. This was good, it looked like the girl was opening up some. Judging by how she was acting, she didn't seem too troubled by her recent abduction either. Maybe she hadn't really understood how bad the situation she'd been in only an hour ago actually was, and maybe she really would be fine after all this. Only time would tell, but so far she looked to be feeling well enough.

Kimiko made an annoyed noise in her throat, glaring at him and puckering her lips. "Do you know who I am! I'm-"

Luffy sighed before cutting her off. "Guys, stop it. You're acting like 5-year-olds!"

Gin and Kimiko both sent him sharp looks.

"Right, so let's go then," Luffy said quickly, eager to get moving. "Gin, where's the Log Pose to Martasa?"

OOOOO

A short time later found the three of them standing on the deck around a large collection of barrels and cloth sacks, full of water and food respectively, which Luffy had raided from the Krieg pirates' stores. As a matter of fact, he was currently devouring a rather enormous snack taken from what they'd gathered.

They'd found both the Eternal Pose to Martasa and one to Ilias, among several others. Kimiko had immediately demanded she wear her hometown's Pose, and Luffy had grabbed the one to Ilias since he wanted to pay that place a visit for obvious reasons. That left Gin with the remaining four Log Poses they'd discovered in Krieg's possession, two wrapped around each of his forearms. One of those was a normal Log Pose while the other three were Eternal Poses to places none of them had heard of before.

Unfortunately, there was literally no treasure to found. The Krieg pirates had apparently been in a bit of a dry spell in that regard. Gin confirmed this when Luffy asked him, but neither of them were that broken up about that fact. Luffy was indifferent and as far as Gin was concerned, if nothing else he figured he could always sell the Eternal Poses for some extra beli if he ever needed to. Eternal Poses were quite valuable, after all, especially those that pointed to the rarer destinations out there.

Luffy was just finishing up his snack when Gin came up to him, having just completed his search through the lower decks of the flagship.

At the moment, Kimiko was ignorant of the both of them, too caught up in her fake sword fight with the evil pirates. She found it quite delightful that Luffy and Gin didn't seem to care that she was swinging around areal pirate sword, leaping this way and that to fend off her deadly opponents using her sharpened weapon. If her parents ever saw her doing something like that, she'd immediately be disciplined.

But they weren't here, so she took this chance to play the way she wanted to without the worry that Father or Mother would catch her doing it.

"I think we're ready, Luffy," Gin told the rubber man, watching the little brat playing with a hint of amusement. "You have a boat or something to get us away from here, right? Where is it?"

Luffy grinned in his direction, nodding. "Yeah, 'course I have something. I'm the future Pirate King, you know!"

Gin let out a raspy chuckle, "Well, I figured you would, but I had to make sure didn't I?"

The future Pirate King ran over to the edge of the deck, putting his hand up around his mouth. "ACE! Time to go!"

This, of course, struck Gin as odd. He couldn't help but wonder why the rubber man would be addressing a boat as if it were a person. Luffy's yelling also drew Kimiko's attention, causing her to halt her role playing and glance over at them in curiosity.

When the whole ship began to shake against the suddenly choppy, unsettling waves beneath it, Gin knew something wasn't right. He connected it with Luffy's yell soon after that, and with a start he realized that whatever Straw Hat had called wasn't a boat at all. It was something much bigger, and much more dangerous.

Proof of this arrived moments later, when a great beast erupted out of the ocean nearby, towering up into the sky above them. The thing had to be the most massive sea creature he'd ever seen before. It's large shadow fell across the entire ship as it blocked out the sun, causing a miniature rainstorm to sprinkle them with cold saltwater. He realized later that this was from the creature's surfacing.

Just as he was collecting himself after the spike of fear that shot through him at its appearance, he heard a harsh scream. Recognizing the high-pitched shriek, he looked over at the little brat to see her watching the Sea King with wide eyes, utterly terrified.

Luffy noticed the girl's terror too. He quickly stepped over to her and grabbed her shoulders with his arms outstretched, kneeling down in front of her at eye level. He shook Kimiko gently out of her frightened stupor, gaining her attention.

"Relax, everything's fine," Luffy assured her, looking her in the eye. She stared back at him. "He won't hurt anyone."

Seeing that his words had effectively calmed her down, Luffy released her and stood back up. Now it was Gin's turn.

"What the hell is th-" he began loudly, before suddenly stopping as he remembered the child in his presence. He let out a breath, and started again. "What is that, Luffy?" he asked, practically growling at rubber man.

What was he thinking? Straw Hat was insane. This thing...it could eat them and the entire Krieg fleet in less than a minute, yet Luffy was as calm as ever. Admittedly, it did comfort part of him to see Luffy so unconcerned with the beast's appearance, but at that moment he wasn't really listening to that part of his mind.

He wanted to know what the he-...heck was going on.

Luffy gave his trademark grin, spreading his arms wide. "Gin, Kimiko. I want you to meet someone."

Turning his head up to look at the gigantic Sea King, Straw Hat laughed boyishly.

"Guys, this is Ace. He's our ride out of here."

* * *

Comments?


	4. Sailing Or Something Like It

Disclaimer: Own One Piece I do not.

* * *

Chapter 4

Sailing Or Something Like It

Once they got over the shock that was Ace, Luffy's pet Sea King, they eventually set off.

Gin couldn't believe he was currently sailing atop the massive serpentine beast. The creature was as big as an island, yet for some reason it listened to Luffy and heeded the rubber man's words.

At this point, he decided he wasn't all that surprised about it. Luffy was full of surprises, and Gin was just beginning to get used to that fact. A day ago, Gin would have laughed if someone had told him he'd be in this situation. It was...just crazy. Insane. Ridiculous. He had even temporarily entertained the notion that he might be dreaming and that he'd wake up back in his cell any moment.

Gin looked upward at Luffy, who was currently sitting up in the crow's nest. Yes, the crow's nest - of the former Krieg flagship. Which was sitting comfortably up on top of the Sea King's head.

How was that possible? Well, it shouldn't have been, not to mention the stunt earlier where Luffy somehow incapacitated the entire Krieg pirate crew in a matter of seconds! There was no doubt in Gin's mind that Luffy had had a hand in that - there hadn't been anyone else around, after all. The kid had certainly gotten more powerful since they'd last met.

It had him seriously pondering things though. Was this the strength of a man with a 400 million bounty on his head? Could such a man really control a beast such as this, such as the one they were riding on?

Well, obviously, the answer was yes. Gin wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't seen first hand how Luffy had done it.

_"Wait, wait, wait!" Luffy shouted, dropping the meat sack he was holding. "This is wrong. I have a much better idea."_

_Luffy had begun loading the food and water barrels up on top of the Sea King, while Gin watched and Kimiko went back to her playing, entirely oblivious to Luffy's inhuman Devil Fruit power. But then Straw Hat had suddenly stopped after the first couple.  
_

_"What do you mean it's wrong? Looks good to me," Gin replied, wondering what he was on about.  
_

_"I mean there's an easier way. Here, help me," Luffy said, walking over to one of the unconscious Krieg pirates and lifting the limp body. He walked over to the edge of the deck and tossed Gin's former crew mate across the gap between the flagship and an adjacent ship. The thump of his body landing on the other ships deck could be heard from where Gin stood._

_"Help me move all these guys off this boat, okay? Just drag them over near me if you don't think you can throw them that far," Luffy explained quite plainly, as if it wasn't a peculiar request at all._

_Gin shrugged to himself before acquiescing. He didn't know what the rubber man was up to, but he didn't have anything to lose by doing what Luffy asked. _

_After a while they managed to get all the unconscious bodies off the deck and out of the lower decks of the former flagship, much to Gin's relief. It had been extremely tiring to drag all of his former crew mates around, especially Don Krieg himself. Luffy had stopped Gin from moving the pirate captain too far, however, saying that he would be staying, and Gin didn't argue since that was one less body he'd have to physically move himself._

_Kimiko, of course, continued to stay ignorant of their activities as she was too caught up in her own war against the imaginary pirates._

_When they finally finished, Luffy vigorously patted him on the back. "Great job, Gin," he said energetically, despite the fact that he'd just spent the last hour hoisting hundreds of bodies over a twenty foot gap._

_"So what was the point of that, exactly?" Gin inquired, sagging a bit in fatigue. Sitting in a cell for as long as he had completely ruined his endurance, he was not pleased to note._

_"We're going to take this ship with us, and we don't want all of them waking up on it."_

_Gin nodded in understanding, that made sense. Except the part about them bringing the ship along._

_"What about your Sea King though? I thought that's what we were going to use..."_

_"Oh, we're still going to ride on Ace. But the ship is coming too," Luffy told him, a satisfied grin on his face.  
_

_Gin's eyebrows creased. "How? I don't think I'm following what you're telling me here, Luffy."_

_Luffy shook his head, waving a hand at him. "You'll see, Gin, don't worry. First though, I'm ripping off that Krieg flag."_

Gin had accepted Luffy's words at the time, but moments later he was still shocked to see Luffy directing Ace to swim under the ship and come up underneath it. His disbelief increased further when Ace actually did what Luffy described and came up out of the water below the ship.

Ace was large enough that when he surfaced below the boat and all of the water rushed from under it, the wooden ship became lodged between several of the small spikes adorning the monstrous creatures backs, and as a result the flagship became landlocked on top of him.

The whole process frightened the berries out of Gin and Kimiko, unsurprisingly, and once it was done they were both extremely relieved as well as flabbergasted when they realized what had occurred. Seriously, Luffy could have at least gave them some type of warning!

And from there they began sailing. Or something like it, anyway.

OOOOO

Luffy sighed to himself, scanning the horizon for about the trillionth time since they'd started moving again.

After tearing Krieg's pirate flag off the mast and throwing it overboard, which took all of two seconds, he'd had nothing else to do and had become utterly bored. He could have messed around with Kimiko if she'd been awake, but she was off napping in one of the crew quarter bunks and had been since they'd set off. Therefore, he'd spent most of his time practicing accessing his Haki as quickly as possible, but that was getting a little old by now.

It was at times like this that he wished that Brooke was there to play some music that he could sing to, or that Robin was there to entertain him with her Devil Fruit ability, or _someone_ was there to do something with him to pass the time. He was so bored he couldn't stand it!

They'd been sailing for several hours now, but it felt like it had been much longer. It was seriously bugging him that he had no idea how far away Martasa was - there was just no way to know for sure and neither Gin nor Kimi knew either. All they could really do was follow the heading set by the Eternal Pose and hope it was closer rather than farther.

Luffy personally would have preferred continuing on to Ilias, where Lou had told them was where the Krieg pirates were supposed to drop Kimiko off, in order to confront whoever was waiting there. But, he'd made a promise to Kimiko that he would take her home and he knew she wanted to get there as soon as possible, so that's where they were going. He'd just have to double back afterward, since Ilias was in about the exact opposite direction of Martasa based off of what the Logs were telling them.

He just wi-

"Oi! Luffy," Gin's voice urgently interrupted his thoughts. "You better come down here, I think Don's waking up!"

Luffy perked up at that, jumping at the chance for some excitement. "Right!" he answered as he hopped off the crow's nest and fell through the open air to the deck, where he landed with the loud clap of his sandals hitting wood.

They'd tied Don Krieg up to the main mast, standing up so that multiple ropes wrapped around the mast at his chest and just below his knees. He'd been relieved of his armor, now wearing nothing but a dirty undershirt and pants.

The muscular man was just coming to as Gin stood at the ready. "So why are we bringing Don along anyway, Luffy?"

Luffy faced Krieg, watching him and waiting for him to fully wake up. He spared Gin a glance, "Well, this is the second time I've had to fight him and he was kidnapping a little girl of all things. That's just not something I'm going to let happen anymore."

He paused. "We're turning him in, Gin. He won't be able to hurt others where he's going."

"Oh."

Gin considered Luffy's answer silently, but after a moment decided he was fine with it. Don Krieg could no longer control his life if he was behind bars.

Don Krieg lifted his head up from where it had been hanging when he'd been unconscious. The man groggily looked around spotting both Gin and Luffy as he attempted to gain his bearings. He shrugged against the ropes holding him to the mast, realizing the position he was in, before he began trying to break them with pure strength.

He probably would have succeeded in breaking them too, had he had enough time to continue trying, but Luffy walked up to him and slapped him to get his attention. "Oi! Krieg. Stop that."

Krieg did cease his struggling momentarily, but only to growl out, "Why should I?"

Luffy rolled his eyes, "We need to talk. That's why you should stop trying to escape. Just think about it for a second...we're sailing at sea right now, and there's nowhere for you to run when you break free of those ropes, so there's no point."

"I can kill you!"

Luffy shook his head, a challenging grin spreading on his face. "Not likely, seeing as how I beat you earlier with one punch. But go ahead and try it if you want, I dare ya."

Gin shot Luffy an alarmed glance, but it was ignored.

"Anyway, Krieg, tell me why you were kidnapping that girl and who you were doing it for."

Krieg stopped flexing his muscles against the increasingly fraying ropes, taking a couple of breaths after his exertions. "And why would I tell you that? Gin, what are you doing? Get me out of this!"

Luffy looked on as Gin didn't move. He just looked back at his former Captain blankly.

Krieg repeated himself. "Get your sorry ass over here and untie me!" When Gin still did nothing, Krieg snarled. "No, better yet, I command you to take that pistol sticking out of your belt and shoot Straw Hat. Then untie me. NOW!"

Gin blinked, shaking his head slowly at Don Krieg. "I'm not your subordinate any longer, Don. In fact, I'm not a pirate at all anymore. We're turning you in for the reward."

Krieg became even more visibly angered, clenching his fists. "What do you mean you're not a pirate anymore! You can't just quit my crew, Gin. When you came aboard my ship, you became mine forever! Don't you remember the day we met?"

Luffy stepped a little closer now, intervening. "He's not going to do anything you tell him, so answer my question."

Krieg scoffed, spitting in the rubber man's direction. "And what are you going to do if I don't? Torture me? Kill me? I don't think you have it in you."

Luffy stared at him for a few moments. "Just tell me."

Krieg laughed cruelly. "You're terrible at this! Why would I tell you anything? Especially if you're going to collect my bounty. I would gain nothing from that."

Luffy didn't answer, prompting Krieg to ask another question. "Where's the rest of my crew? Are they dead?"

Luffy folded his arms across his chest, a smirk forming on his face. "I'll tell you where you're crew is, if you tell me why you kidnapped Kimi."

Don Krieg looked away distastefully, before grunting sourly. "Fine, fine. I did it for the money, why else?"

Luffy pouted. That wasn't exactly the detailed answer he was looking for, but...he supposed the man _had_ answered the question. "That's all? You did it for the money? How much were you paid to do it then?"

"20 million. Now, damn it, what did you do to my crew?"

"Who paid you?"

Krieg shot him a venomous look, "I'm not answering another question until you answer mine."

Luffy grinned at the man. "You're not in a position to be making demands you know. Tell me who and I'll tell you where your crew is."

Krieg flexed his jaw in annoyance, but ended up giving in. "Look, I don't know, you little runt! All I know is he calls himself the Jackal, but that's not his real name. And I don't know what he looks like either, 'cause he sent someone else to tell me the details of what they wanted me to do."

Luffy breathed out. Even Don Krieg didn't seem to know much, but he had at least given him a name. Sure, not a real name, but a name nonetheless.

"Anything else?"

"No, nothin' else. I don't know anything more than you do now."

Luffy surveyed the man, before finally accepting that the man was telling the truth. He didn't know anymore than what he'd said.

"Alright then. Your crew is back with the rest of your fleet. They're probably all waking up about now, I'd expect."

"Where are you taking me then? If that's where you're gonna turn me in at, I deserve to know."

"We're going back to Martasa, to return Kimi to the home you took her from," Luffy simply told him, not seeing any reason to withhold that information. He'd gotten everything that he wanted out of the man already.

"Well, I guess we're done here! Time for you to sleep," he said nonchalantly, sending out a sharp Haoshoku Haki stab at the man.

Don Krieg promptly passed out.

OOOOO

They "sailed" for 7 more days before they finally neared Martasa. They could be thankful that at least the port town wasn't located somewhere across the world, as otherwise it would have taken them much, much longer to arrive.

Interactions between the three passengers became more and more familiar every day that passed. It was only the three of them, not counting Don Krieg, and out there in the vast ocean they only had the other two to keep them company. Just one example evidencing this was Kimiko's nickname. Luffy had been calling her "Kimi" intermittently since the day they'd met, but it soon stuck and now both Luffy and Gin used it when addressing her instead of her full name. She didn't seem to mind.

The trio could only talk together for so long though. Gin and Kimi especially could only take each other in small doses before they got on each others nerves. Something about the personalities of the scruffy man and the prepubescent girl didn't mesh very well if kept in close proximity for too long. To pass those times where they weren't all together, they each spent their time doing various other things.

Kimi, for instance, played pirate scenarios almost constantly, as she'd never been on a pirate ship before in her life. Sometimes Luffy would join in too. Even being a real pirate couldn't beat the excitement of being a fantasy pirate!

_"And I, Kimiko the Great Violet Rose, drive my sword through you, Evil Lord Luffy! Pay for your crimes!"_

_She jabbed the sword in Luffy's direction. Luffy froze, putting his hands up to his chest in apparent shock, before stumbling to his knees.  
_

_"Gah! I've been stabbed!" he cried in pain, crumpling to the ground on his back as she stood looking down upon him without mercy. "I-...I'm sor...ry..." he stuttered out, barely able to finish as the life within him vanished.  
_

_And with that, Luffy stilled, tongue lolling out of his mouth comically. _

_He stayed that way until Kimi started giggling and poking him with a finger. "Wake up, stupid head!"  
_

_When he didn't listen, she poked him harder. At this he suddenly jumped up, eliciting a scream out of her._

_"Boo!" he roared, grabbing her and beginning to tickle her mercilessly. She squealed and squirmed as she tried to escape the torment, giggling uncontrollably. Laughing as well, Luffy finally relented and collapsed back on the deck, looking up into the blue sky with a satisfied smile. Kimi mimicked him, breathing heavily and exhausted.  
_

_They laid there for a few moments until Kimi regained her breath and sat up, curiously watching Luffy stare upward. Her gaze soon traveled down to the bare portion of his chest and stomach left revealed by his outfit, quirking her head at the scar she saw there. She'd already seen it several times over the last several days obviously, but had never examined it from that close before.  
_

_"Hey, Luffy," she asked quietly, pointing at the scar. "Where'd you get that?"  
_

_His eyes turned to her when she spoke, seeing where she was pointing. "This scar?" he said, looking down at his chest blankly.  
_

_"Yeah, that big one," she said, not realizing how personal such a question might have been.  
_

_Luffy didn't say anything right away, just looking down at it, remembering everything he had decided that scar represented. He closed his eyes, a hint of a smile returning to his face. "I got it from the man who hurt my brother."  
_

_"You have a brother?" Kimi responded innocently, before her face turned sad. "I'm sorry. Did the Marines arrest him for hurting your brother?"  
_

_Now Luffy sat up, a bitter chuckle coming out. "That man? No. He wasn't punished at all..."  
_

_"That's not right!" Kimi yelled, puffing up in outrage. "Why not? Bad guys like that belong in prison, that's what Father always says!"  
_

_Luffy laughed at her, "Yeah, I agree, but it's not always that easy. Don't worry about it though."  
_

_"But it's not fair! I bet you want to beat him up for what he did, don't you? Daddy says violence isn't the answer, but that guy deserves it!"  
_

_"Thanks, Kimi," Luffy told her earnestly, getting up and walking away to check on Don Krieg. "Someday, I plan on it."  
_

Gin, on the other hand, spent his time brooding and watching Krieg like a hawk. He was committed to making sure the man didn't escape, since he knew that his former captain would hunt him down for leaving his crew.

Then there was Luffy, who as mentioned did a little bit of everything. When he wasn't role playing with Kimi, he would join Gin and converse about whatever was on his mind at the time. The rubber man also spent time with Don Krieg, surprisingly.

Not for fun, of course, but instead for training purposes. To be more specific, he was working with his Haoshoku Haki, Krieg being his test subject. He wanted to familiarize himself more with how accurate and precise he should be when using it, and what better person was there to practice on then a bad man they were going to turn in shortly?

He'd done this type of thing with Rayleigh and the wild beasts on Rusukaina when he was training, but he thought it would be wise to try it on a man that wasn't the crazy powerful-willed former First Mate of the Pirate King.

Don Krieg was a man with moderately more Will than the average person, Luffy figured, but significantly less than a legend such as Rayleigh that he'd still be susceptible to fainting. With that bit of information in mind, Luffy began testing how much strength he needed to put into his Haoshoku Haki in order to knock the man unconscious. If he could put the least amount of force into it but still achieve the same result, he would be that much more efficient with it in the long run.

And after just that week, Luffy could say with certainty that he'd gotten a much better hold on doling out his Haki in select amounts over human wills. Whenever Krieg would wake up, Luffy would use Haoshoku Haki to knock him out again, using a little less force each time until finally he reached the point where the minimum amount of Haki was needed.

To say Don Krieg was baffled by his time with them would be an understatement. Luffy never explained to him what he was doing, so all the captain of the Krieg pirates was aware of was that every time he woke up he'd soon be asleep again. He eventually just ended up thinking they had some drug they were constantly dosing him with.

Gin, however, had seen Luffy knock their prisoner out by just seemingly looking in his direction. When he confronted Luffy about it, about this strange ability, the rubber man had admitted that it was a new power he'd discovered but refused to go into any details, blocking any further attempts by Gin to bring up the topic again.

And that led to now.

They were finally approaching Martasa's harbor after a straight week of sailing, and all of them were excited about reaching land once again, especially Kimi. This was excluding Don Krieg, of course, but he didn't count.

"We're here, Kimi!" Luffy called out from up in the crow's nest, admiring the incoming island with a grin on his face.

* * *

Another short one, but I promise the next chapter is twice as long. And once I put the finishing touches on it, I'll post that one too!


	5. Martasa

Disclaimer: Who owns One Piece? Well not me, that's for sure.

* * *

Chapter 5

Martasa

Leaping off of Ace, Luffy landed on one of the many wooden docks in Martasa's southern port, his characteristic grin as wide as ever. He dropped a shaken Gin and the unconscious Don Krieg by his side, laughing when Kimi let out a whoop of joy.

"Let's do that again!" the young girl cried in exhilaration from her spot on his back, turning around to watch as Ace submerged himself back into the depths of the sea.

Gin stumbled to his feet a bit unsteadily, disagreeing as he ran a hand through his brown hair. "Please, no. Never again."

Slapping Gin heartily on the back, Luffy chuckled. "Ah, come on Gin! You had fun and you know it!"

Gin just mumbled something, giving up and finally glancing around at where they'd arrived. The dock area was oddly barren, even though it was midday and should have been a place of bustling activity. There weren't even any ships or boats docked in any of the stalls.

"Where is everyone?" Gin wondered aloud, not sure whether the lack of people was a good or bad thing. On one hand, the fact that there was no one to witness their strange arrival meant they hadn't drawn unwanted attention yet, but on the other that same fact was quite foreboding. Why were there no people out here, especially on a sunny day such as this?

Luffy shrugged, unconcerned. "Don't know, lets go look! Is there usually nobody around, Kimi?"

Kimi ignored the nickname, shifting a bit in her piggyback position. "No, lots of people are usually here..."

"Well that's not a good sign," Gin sighed, moving to follow Luffy as he walked ahead, carelessly dragging Don Krieg by one of his arms like he was some type of rag doll.

They proceeded further and off the docks, onto a large pathway leading up a steep hill before continuing up the steps carved into the sloped ground. This, had Don Krieg been awake to feel it, would have surely been a rather painful experience for him. None of them particularly cared, however.

As they reached the top, Kimi suddenly giggled and pointed ahead of them at a large sign.

**'South Docks Closed For Renovation'**

Through the small fence blocking off the area, what appeared to be an outdoor marketplace could be seen along the sides of the street stretching out into the town. It was filled with crowds of people as it should be, bustling around and noisily going about their various business.

"That's why nobody's here, old man!" she told Gin importantly. "And you were scared!"

Gin growled, reading the red block letters on the sign. "I wasn't scared, brat. Just being careful!"

"Scaredy-cat!"

"Okay, that's it," Gin grumbled, cracking his knuckles menacingly. "Luffy, let me at her!"

Kimi didn't bat an eyelash, sticking her tongue out. "I'm not afraid of you, you dumb pirate!"

"Why you-...once I get some new tonfa you better watch out, little girl!"

"Father would stop you in a heartbeat! Just try it!" the 8-year-old retorted smartly.

Luffy laughed loudly at their heated antics, drowning out any further comments either Gin or Kimi might have had. "You guys are too funny!"

"Shut up, stupid!" Kimi answered, knocking him on the head with her small fist.

"Ow!" The rubber man pouted. "Why'd you hit me?"

"Because!"

"That's not a reason!" Luffy responded in mock outrage.

"Yeah huh!"

"Okay okay," Gin finally interrupted, a small smile on his face. "Enough. In all seriousness, this is a good thing. I had been expecting the worst, but let's just be glad it turned out to be nothing."

"Right, onward!" Luffy said excitedly.

"Hey now, wait! Hold up," Gin stopped him in exasperation, shaking his head. "Luffy, you're really just gonna walk out there looking like that?"

Luffy glanced at the man before looking down at himself, frowning. "Eh? Well...yeah! Why not?"

Gin brought a hand up to his face, rubbing his forehead wearily. "You'll be instantly recognized with that hat! And then there's gonna be marines all over the place!"

Luffy stared at him for a moment, tilting his head sideways. "So? I'll be fine!"

Gin let his jaw drop in disbelief. "You really don't care?"

"It's never been a problem before!"

"Seriously? There's no way..."

Luffy shrugged. "If I'm seen, oh well. Can't help it!"

Gin couldn't believe what he was hearing. He massaged his temples, before dropping his hands and letting his shoulders slacken.

"Alright," he eventually breathed out, knowing it was hopeless to try and change Straw Hat's mind. "Fine, but if there's trouble, I'm leaving at the first trace of it! I don't wanna get dragged into anything - I just escaped that lifestyle. Being chased down for being your accomplice would completely ruin the second chance I've been given!"

Luffy considered that, nodding. "That's fine, Gin. I wouldn't expect you to," he told the man, before getting an idea. "And here, this might help a little."

He took his straw hat off and reached behind him, placing it on Kimi's head instead. "There, you can borrow this until I drop you off, 'kay?"

"Unh!" Kimi let out in surprise, about to complain before stopping and reaching up to adjust the brim. It was actually pretty cool, she decided.

Gin appeared to grimly accept it. "Well, any bit helps I guess. I still think we should come up with a better disguise though, so there's less of a chance you'll be recognized."

Luffy waved him off, "Don't worry, Gin, we'll be alright!"

Kimi looked between the two curiously, annoyed she was being ignored. "Oi! What do you mean stupid-head will be recognized? Are you famous or something, Luffy?"

Luffy shook his head, a grin forming. "Nah, not really. Not yet anyway."

Gin choked, gaping at the rubber man in shock. Did he really believe that?

"So what's the problem then?" Kimi asked, anxious to go back her parents. "Let's go! I'll show you the way to my house!"

"No problem," Luffy chuckled, excitement returning. "Yosh, let's go!"

Gin closed his eyes with another sigh. He tiredly told himself to just forget about it. Being around Straw Hat was way too exhausting! It definitely wasn't worth it to try and make any sense out of Luffy's actions.

Slipping through the wide opening to the side of the fence barricading the pathway, the trio plus Krieg entered the edge of the outdoor market.

Vendors of all sorts stood behind stands displaying their assorted goods and dealing with potential customers, and no one was paying any attention to Luffy at all. Gin was happy for this, if they weren't noticed as pirates then things would go much smoother.

"Gin, why don't you take Krieg and turn him in for the bounty while I take Kimi to her parents," Luffy suggested distractedly as he was glancing around the marketplace with interest. "That way you won't be seen with me, right?"

Gin was about to protest against splitting up, but then stopped himself. Luffy would instantly be recognized if he went anywhere near a Marine station, much less trying to collect a bounty, whereas he himself would have no such trouble!

"That's a good idea, actually," he quickly agreed, admittedly a bit surprised it had come from Luffy. Maybe it was a fluke. "Then we can meet back here when we're done, okay?"

"Great! Let's do this," Luffy answered happily, casually handing the arm he'd been dragging Don Krieg by to Gin.

Gin stared at the arm, which had by now been at a very awkward angle for quite awhile. Shaking his head, Gin bent down and pulled the large man's body over his shoulders with a grunt. It would certainly be a workout carrying his former captain around, especially since he had no idea where the Marine outlet in this town was and would have to look around.

At the very least, he knew that there would be one _somewhere _in a busy port town like Martasa!

OOOOO

Luffy maneuvered himself through the crowded street, browsing all of the things that were on sale in each stand. There was just so much delicious-looking food and so many awesome items on display! Except, he reminded himself, he didn't have any money to buy anything yet. He reluctantly turned away from one particular vendor who was selling some cool souvenir trinkets.

"Just follow this street for awhile, Luffy!" Kimi instructed, still perched on his back. It had soon become her favorite spot, not only because she didn't have to walk on her own but it also turned out to be surprisingly comfortable.

Luffy continued walking, blending into the crowds and following her directions. Bricked buildings sat lined up on both sides of the street, some being shops or businesses while others appeared to be houses and apartments.

As soon as they'd passed the block or two of vendors, however, the cobblestone streets were much less busy. A bit higher risk of getting recognized, sure, but at the same time it made the street much easier to traverse. It wasn't like they were drawing suspicious looks or anything though, as there were still a fair amount of men and women going about their daily business.

Eventually, they came to a fork in the road. "Left," Kimi told him, and he complied. This went on for a few more turns, but his luck ran out just as they came upon small garden area with a beautiful water fountain in front.

"S-sir! Please halt!" a voice suddenly sounded off from their right, talking to them.

Luffy stopped and slowly turned, only to find that the one who had spoken had been one of the guards posted along the street they were currently on.

There had been many guards before this, standing resolutely in intervals along the streets or at intersections. They were all wearing armor with a sword in its sheath at their waist and watching out for any trouble, but up until now he'd been able to simply walk by them without incident. Yet, it seemed this one must have been watching a little closer than the others and noticed him.

Seeing Luffy's face more directly now, and the infamous straw hat atop the head of the child on his back, the guard's eyes widened as he made the connection.

Damn! Luffy cursed to himself. He'd been found out!

"I-I was right! It is you! You're...you're-" The guard abruptly cut off, paling as his gaze focused more on the girl on Straw Hat's back. That hair peaking out from under the hat...it looked brown at first glance, but no...no! He'd recognize that green hair anywhere, no matter how grimy it was. "K-Kimiko-sama!"

Luffy's brow scrunched, "Eh?"

"Take me home now, Luffy!" Kimi said impatiently, eyeing the commotion this was starting to cause as passersby stopped to see what was going on. "Please!"

Hearing this, the guard narrowed his eyes. Drawing his sword and attracting the attention of any nearby people not already watching, the man pointed his sword at Luffy threateningly, "Straw Hat Luffy! Release the princess at once!"

OOOOO

Gin stood in front of the entrance to the Marine building, out of breath. It had taken awhile of navigating the streets and the directions of a helpful citizen before he'd finally managed to locate it. Don Krieg was still out cold, his massive weight feeling heavier and heavier by the minute. His back was killing him!

Pushing through the discomfort, Gin moved forward and through the double doors. He entered into a welcoming area with a secretary's desk near the back, which he immediately approached. The man behind the desk looked up from his work in alarm when Gin dropped his former captain on the floor.

"I'm here to collect a bounty," Gin stated, seeing the man's eyes travel down to where Krieg was sprawled haphazardly on the floor.

"Very well," the man said, standing and coming around the desk to take a closer look. "Who is this?"

"Don Krieg," Gin answered, stretching the kinks out of his back.

"Ah, yes," the man pulled out a thick packet of 'wanted' posters, rifling through it quickly. "The pirate from East Blue."

Once he found Don Krieg's, the secretary set the other posters back down on his desk. He compared the picture with the person lying on the ground before nodding. "Indeed, this seems to be him. Let me get someone down here to take him back to a cell. It has been reported that this particular pirate has eaten a Devil Fruit, can you confirm this?"

Gin nodded, "Yes. He is a Zoan type."

"Excellent," the man replied, moving to a shelf behind his desk and pulling out a pair of handcuffs. Sea stone handcuffs, Gin realized. The man secured them around Krieg's beefy wrists.

Two Marines in full uniform soon entered through a hallway off to the right, to which the secretary man ushered them over. "Take this man to the prison block, please. Cell 7F."

They nodded, picking Don Krieg up without much trouble between the two of them, and carried him out of sight.

The secretary returned to the seat at his desk. "Now, for the sake of our records, may I ask what your name is?"

"Gin," he told him after a second, figuring there was no reason to come up with a fake name. His name wouldn't be recognized like Don Krieg or Monkey D. Luffy's would be. "Xi Gin."

"Okay, Gin, and where might we be able to contact you if necessary? Are you a resident of Martasa?"

Gin blinked. "No, I just arrived here. To contact me...well, I've actually been traveling quite a bit lately and don't really have a place I can be reached at reliably. Do I need to provide that information in order to receive the reward?"

The man considered him briefly, before shaking his head. "No, it's not required to collect the bounty per se. However, it would be in your best interest to provide one. Yet, seeing as you have no permanent residence I'll just jot that down and that should suffice."

Gin nodded, letting out a subtle breath of relief.

It was quiet for another few moments as the man filled out paperwork. He glanced up when he eventually finished. "Very well, everything seems to be in order. Gin, for your capture of the pirate Don Krieg, your reward is 32 million beli as noted on the wanted poster. That means, after taxes and fees, you will receive 29,780,100 beli. Is this acceptable?"

Gin gulped at the large sum, "Yes."

"Would you prefer a credit note or cash for this transaction, Gin?"

"Cash, please."

"Great, and would you like that distributed as one lump sum or several delayed payments?"

"One lump sum," he responded as calmly as he was able.

The secretary gave a nod and passed him a piece of paper. "I'll have that brought right out. Now, if you would just sign here and here, you are free to go."

Gin smiled as he took the paper and quickly scribbled out his signature. "There you go."

OOOOO

"Did you hear that?"

"He just said..."

"Is it really him? He hasn't been seen since-"

"And the princess!"

"The son of _that_ man..."

"He's the one that took her!"

Murmurs of unrest washed through the crowd of onlookers - everyone had heard that name before! And he had the princess as well! Was it really true that Straw Hat Luffy was behind her disappearance?

At the same time, Luffy's jaw dropped.

"Princess?" he shouted in disbelief. "Kimi! You're a-"

Kimi giggled, "Yeah, silly. I thought you knew!"

Luffy shook his head, growing more serious as another dozen guards arrived on scene and began surrounding him.

"Scum!" One of the new guards yelled hatefully. "Hand over Kimiko-sama!"

Kimi was troubled hearing this. Why were they being so mean to Luffy? It didn't make any sense after he had rescued her and everything!

"Hey, stop!" she cried out from her spot on Luffy's back. "He saved me from bad people!"

The guards paused in confusion, before one suddenly narrowed his eyes in understanding. "The princess doesn't realize she's been taken hostage, Straw Hat has brainwashed her! We must rescue Kimiko-sama at all costs!"

They began closing in again, poised to slash their swords at any moment.

Luffy watched on with a blank face. He knew he wasn't the brightest bulb out there, but these guys were taking stupidity to a whole new level!

Kimi was bewildered, and getting quite upset. "What are you talking about, you dummies! He's taking me home right now!"

"Do not worry, Kimiko-sama!" one guard called out. "We'll get you back safely!"

"No, listen to me! Luffy's not bad!" Kimi screamed out as the guards moved even closer, now within the reach of their swords.

"Please stay calm, Kimiko-sama! Everything will be alright!"

"Straw Hat Luffy!" another guard bellowed, glaring at him in disgust. Straw Hat's actions against the princess were unforgivable! "Release the princess or we'll be forced to attack!"

The others roared in agreement, more threats ringing out.

"You're trapped now!"

"Give up, you fiend!"

"We won't let you escape!"

Kimi slackened, almost in tears. Her words weren't getting through to them at all and now they were going to hurt Luffy!

"Which way was it again?" Luffy muttered so that only she could hear.

"Luffy..." Kimi trailed off hopelessly.

"Which way?" he repeated under his breath.

Kimi sighed, "Straight and then right at the next turn, but-"

"Hang on tight," he interrupted, a grin coming to his face.

Leaping straight into action, the guards didn't even have time to react as Luffy dashed forward and knocked two out of the way, creating an opening that he immediately sprinted through. The other guards gave chase with collective shouts of rage.

Luffy skidded around the next corner - right just as Kimi had said - and ended up almost smacking into a group of old men walking together, but managed to twirl around them just in time before accelerating down the street once again and putting a bit more distance between the pursuing guards and Kimi and himself.

Getting over her surprise at how easily Luffy escaped the city guards, Kimi suddenly pointed ahead. "That's it! That's my house!"

Luffy's eyes followed where the tiny hand in front of his face was lined up with and his eyebrows rose, even as he dipped and side-stepped around the oblivious passersby moving in the other direction.

"That's...your house?" he responded in awe, gazing up at the large palace that could now be seen in the distance. That was where she was pointing.

"Yeah! I'm a princess, remember?" she giggled happily at finally being back home, the distraught guards hounding them not even fazing her as she stared up at the palace overlooking Martasa's streets.

With the guards still on their tail, Luffy wasted no time in running up the main street, his destination in sight. He continued weaving through the citizens, passing them by the time they could wonder why he was in such a hurry and leaving in his wake more obstacles for his pursuers.

The buildings on either side of them blurred by until Luffy was eventually forced to slide to a stop just as they were running up the slight slope in front of the palace gates. This was because of the line of palace guards waiting for them, pikes held standing in front of them. Clearly they'd been alerted to his presence.

"Halt!" The guard in the center called, poising his weapon. "The gates have been closed, Straw Hat! Return the princess, you have nowhere else to run!"

The city guards finally caught up at this point, gathering in a disorganized group behind him to block any retreat he may attempt.

Luffy blew out a breath, turning his head to the side. "They're really determined, Kimi, is it alright if I drop you off here?"

"Yeah," she sighed in disappointment at his muttered words. "I really wanted you to meet my parents though."

"Well, m-" Luffy started, but was cut off by a loud creaking racket coming from...from the palace gates!

The guards all balked in surprise, apparently this was unexpected to them as well.

"The g-gates! They're opening back up," one of them cried out in disbelief.

OOOOO

Inokuma Sadao sat at the desk in his study, halfheartedly writing out some inconsequential paperwork. Brow furrowed, he placed the quill back in its holder and tiredly leaned back in the high-backed chair.

He rubbed his eyes with a frown, he shouldn't be sitting here doing paperwork. Not with all that had happened over the last month...none of this stuff was important! Yet, he didn't know what else he could do, which is why he'd been trying to get some of this work done in the first place. To keep himself busy.

Except it wasn't working.

Recent events had...well, they constantly plagued his mind. How could they not though?

First, his brother-in-law had gone missing. Not only had Akio been Martasa's strongest protector, he was also his wife's younger brother and a part of the noble family. And that wasn't even the end of it! To make matters worse, marital arrangements had been made on his behalf with their sister kingdom that were now made quite complicated.

The snail phone call to Cobra had been especially humiliating for one, where he'd had to explain to the man how their plans had to be put on hold indefinitely until Akio could be located. The genial king had been very understanding, of course, and had even offered to send one of his top guardsmen to help in the search (which he'd politely refused - Martasa could handle its own problems thank you very much!), but such a postponement could have potentially rendered the political agreement entirely null had his colleague had a less favorable reaction to such news.

He only hoped the young man was okay, though truthfully if Akio hadn't shown up by now, it was not looking well. He would never admit this to his wife, but he was beginning to fear the worst.

Then, if Akio's disappearance wasn't enough, Sadao's own daughter had been kidnapped two weeks ago. And by dirty, rotten pirates no less! As a father, this was his worst nightmare. His sweet little princess was in the hands of criminals who could be doing who knew what to her! His expression grew pained as he imagined how they were probably treating her and how scared she must have been at that moment.

Originally, when that pirate fleet had showed up in the port, it'd logically been thought they were making an attempt at taking over the kingdom. It wouldn't have been the first time pirates had tried such a thing! But soon it was discovered that was not their intent, and they'd somehow gotten a hold of Kimiko in the resulting chaos.

Had his brother-in-law not been missing at the time, none of this would have happened, he was sure of it! Akio would have been able to stop it, but without him, the rest of Martasa's strongest men didn't stand a chance against the army of pirates. Even the second most powerful guard he had, Augustus, who was almost on par with Akio's strength, couldn't take them all on by himself and the pirates had managed to escape.

He'd since sent Augustus with a group of his best men out to the seas in search, but so far they'd had no luck. This, unfortunately, temporarily left Martasa's defenses very weakened, but what was he supposed to do? It was his daughter, the princess! He _had_ to send out his best if he ever hoped to get her back safely.

Every day he was losing more and more hope, however. He'd never give up, as it was his daughter for goodness sake, but each passing day the realistic chances of recovering her unharmed got slimmer. And it tore him up inside! He hadn't slept in he didn't know how long, his other duties were piling up because of his negligence, and this wasn't even considering the condition his wife was in.

Eri had it worse than himself. She had lost both her daughter and her brother in the span of a couple weeks! Despite the fact she was a dozen years his senior, Akio and her were exceptionally close siblings, which only made it harder for her.

He sighed to himself, if only th-

RAP RAP RAP

His musings were abruptly cut off by hurried knocking at the door.

"I thought I said I was not to be disturbed," he answered a bit sharply.

There was a pause before a shaky voice responded, "S-sir! I apologize, b-but it is urgent. Straw Hat Luffy has been sighted in town, a-and he has Kimiko-sama!"

Sadao's eyes widened, his heart rate speeding up as he ripped open the study door. "What did you say?"

"Straw Hat L-"

The man waved a hand in agitation, moving swiftly out of room and down the large corridor, talking mostly to himself. "Never mind, I heard you! Straw Hat Luffy...why does that name sound familiar?"

The guard closed his mouth in embarrassment, before catching up with his king as they hastily descended a flight of carpeted stairs.

"Sir," he said, handing over a wanted poster to Sadao. "He's the pirate with a 400,000,000 beli bounty on his head! One of the pirate captains the World Government is hunting most vigorously, but he hasn't been seen since Whitebeard's War."

"But what is he doing here!" the king bit out in frustration as he glared at the picture on the poster. He had no disillusions - Martasa couldn't take on a man that dangerous, not even at full strength! And the man had his daughter!

"I-I am not sure, Sadao-sama," the guard stuttered, keeping pace with him as they walked down another hallway. "But we have men surrounding him at this very mo-"

As they entered the front palace foyer, another guard came running through another connecting passageway. "Sir!" he blurted out as he saw them. "Straw Hat Luffy is running in the direction of the palace! We've closed off the gates and are preparing a barricade, but we must get you and Eri-sama to the panic room!"

Sadao considered what he'd been told as the guard bent over, breathing heavily from running so quickly in order to deliver the message.

His lips formed a determined line, "No, forget that," he snapped, just as his wife was being ushered into the room by two other palace guards. "That won't help any if Straw Hat is indeed here for us. Open the gates!"

Both guards by him didn't seem to register the request for an instant. "Sir?" they stammered out together in shock. "You can't be serious!"

"Sadao!" His queen said worriedly as she approached. "What is going on? They said something about K-"

"Yes," he interrupted grimly. "She is in the possession of a dangerous pirate, dear, but I will get her back. I promise."

The king turned back to the guards, who were now joined by the two escorting his wife. "I am quite serious, I assure you. Open them, now! Keep my wife safe in here."

"Yes sir," they saluted quickly, clearly not agreeing with this course of action but unable to disobey their king.

Sadao was out the large front doors a moment later, just when the outer gates creaked open. Walking forward, two more of his guards attempted to stop him, but he disregarded them. Once they accepted the fact they weren't going to change his mind, they took positions behind each of his shoulders, figuring they could at least do their best to protect him.

He didn't protest their actions, instead giving them both a grateful nod before proceeding out through the now open gateway.

The scene that greeted him gave him pause.

His guards, a mix of both palace and city, were swarmed around a central figure who was in turn standing there calmly. Though the man wasn't wearing his infamous straw hat, Sadao immediately recognized him for who he was from the wanted poster he was still grasping in his left hand. And...and there she was on his back! His Kimiko was indeed here!

Seeing her so close sealed his resolve. He knew what he had to do. Stuffing the poster into the vest of his robe, the king of Martasa prepared himself to move forward and plead with the pirate to release his daughter. He would do anything for her, no matter the man's price!

Just as he stepped forward, something else stopped him. It wasn't until now that he realized his daughter was wearing that pirate's hat - THE straw hat. What...unless it was a clever attempt to hide her identity! Of course, the Inokuma green hair was fairly well-known after all. It figures Straw Hat would need to conceal that feature the best he could to keep from being discovered!

_He's smart_, Sadao thought, eyes narrowing. _I'd expect no less from such a legendary criminal. Yes, he wouldn't be so highly sought after by the World Government if he wasn't devious!_

He'd have to handle this carefully. One wrong move and the pirate could hurt her!

Recollecting himself, the king opened his mouth to begin negotiations, but before he could let out a sound he was halted once again. This time because he saw Straw Hat turn his head and say something indistinguishable to his daughter. He saw his Kimiko's lips move in response, and she looked upset.

This instantly brought his ire up, whatever that pirate had whispered to his baby girl had hurt her feelings! His fists clenched, but he calmed himself like only an experienced politician could do before he did something stupid to make the situation worse.

Reaching deep within, he pulled himself together and expertly put up the blank mask he was so used to. "Straw Hat Luffy," he addressed levelly, the lack of a waver or shake in his voice a testament to his inner resolve. "Why are you here? What do you want for my daughter? Name your terms!"

"Father! You d-" his princess started to say before he stopped her with a raised hand.

"Quiet, Kimiko. You'll be safe in no time," Sadao assured her, softening his tone slightly.

"But n-" she argued, but was interrupted this time by the pirate himself, who grabbed the arms wrapped around his neck.

"Don't bother, Kimi," the young man told her quietly. Sadao could still make out the words, though he couldn't make any sense out of them. Why was he saying that? His daughter sadly looked at the back of the pirate's head for some reason. "It's fine, really."

Sadao inwardly tensed as the pirate's gaze then hit him. This...this was how intense it was to have the eyes of a man worth 400 million beli on you. As the leader of a country, he'd been in the presence of important and powerful men in the past, sure, but never before had any of them looked at him so directly or been so focused on him. He got the feeling this pirate wasn't very approving of him either, although he couldn't really tell why.

The young man didn't say anything, which bothered the king more than he wanted to admit. Was he just trying to make him sweat? Well, it was certainly working...he just hoped Straw Hat's demands were something he could realistically meet. If he couldn't, he didn't know what would happen to his daugh-

Those thoughts suddenly scattered and his mask unwillingly cracked when he saw Straw Hat let his daughter down off his back, replaced by a large amount of confusion. He, along with his guards, watched in disbelief as his baby girl giggled at something Straw Hat had muttered to her, and gave him his hat back, which he quickly placed on his own head. Then she twirled around and began frowning at all of the guards as she walked through them toward him.

After passing them, her pout turned to him before a smile finally broke through. He bent down, relieved to see her smiling. Her happiness at being back home overcoming her apparent frustration, she ran the last few steps into his open arms.

"Daddy!" she cried out in joy as she hugged him tightly.

He laughed and returned the embrace, grateful to have his daughter back. The wide smile on his face, however, lessened marginally as his eyes met those of Straw Hat Luffy above her shoulder.

The man was staring at him, one hand holding the top of his straw hat in place. The brim was tilted downward slightly, enough that shadows covered the upper half of the pirate's face. His eyes were still visible through the shadows though, and they were trained on him. It was quite intimidating.

The breeze lightly rustled the young man's loose clothing as the eye contact continued. Sadao couldn't look away.

The stare down was broken by a guardsman's shout. "The princess is safe! Men, capture Straw Hat Luffy!"

The guard that had spoken rushed up from behind Straw Hat, slashing the sword at his unguarded back. The king's jaw dropped as the pirate ducked, somehow avoiding the attack without even looking. This took the guard off-guard (heh) too, who ended up overextending and stumbled forward right into Straw Hat's headbutt as the young man jumped back up, ramming into the guard's head.

The guard fell to the ground, clearly knocked out. The other guards hesitated as Straw Hat glanced around himself unconcernedly, cracking his neck.

Kimi having heard the declaration, shook herself out of the long hug, drawing his attention back to her. "Father! He saved me, stop them!"

He stared at her in surprise, "What? What do you mean, sweetie?"

She stamped her foot impatiently. "He took me away from the pirates and brought me here! Why is everyone trying to hurt him?!"

Sadao's forehead creased, mind racing as he comprehended what she was saying. What? But how could that be? "A-are you sure, Kimiko?"

"Yes!"

Her confirmation jolted him, as he thought back to the last several minutes he'd witnessed. It all made sense now, the interaction between Kimiko and the man, and why he'd come to this place in the first place. If Straw Hat _had_ kidnapped his daughter, he would have never returned to Martasa, much less to the palace.

Sadao still didn't know why that infamous man had brought his daughter back, but he clearly hadn't been the one to take her.

Eyes widening in realization, his head snapped back up to stop his guards from attacking. About to yell out for them to cease, his open mouth clamped shut as he saw all of his men already down on the ground. They were all incapacitated, and Straw Hat Luffy was walking away. Not even looking back.

How...? He'd only glanced down at Kimi for a couple moments at most and hadn't heard any more fighting! What had just happened? Were they all dead?

Kimiko turned around and saw this too, her little face expressing a similar shock. "What...?" she murmured. "It happened again!"

Again? What did that mean? Had she seen this happen before, the king wondered?

His daughter shook away her surprise, giggling as she cupped her hands over her mouth. "Thanks for everything, Luffy!" she screamed at his retreating form.

At this, Straw Hat glanced back, a wide grin on his face just like the one depicted in his wanted poster. He waved a hand, "Bye Kimi!" And with that, the pirate rotated back around and took off running down the main street until he was out of sight.

Sadao could only look on in further disbelief. _That man..._ He trailed off. _He brought her back! For whatever reason, he did it.  
_

The king was so preoccupied with his thoughts, he didn't notice the little princess catch a glimpse of the crinkled piece of paper sticking out of his robe pocket. Curious, Kimiko plucked it out and straightened it. She scanned it for a second before dropping it and staggering a bit, stunned.

"WHAT?!" she shrieked in alarm, almost giving her father a heart attack. "Luffy's a bad man?"

OOOOO

Gin stood up from the box he was sitting on as he saw Luffy running toward him. He'd arrived at the south port a few minutes ago only to see that Luffy hadn't returned yet, so he'd picked the nearest seat he could find by the docks. At least he hadn't had to wait long, though the fact that Straw Hat was running worried him a bit.

"Gin!" Luffy greeted exuberantly, coming to a stop next to him. "You got Don Krieg's bounty?"

Gin held up the bag in answer, earning a grin from Luffy. "You dropped the brat off then?"

"Yeah," was the rubberman's response, looking back toward the fence barricading the docks off. Satisfied there was no one following, he continued. "I was recognized like you said, but I took care of it. We should go now though, if you're still coming with me that is!"

Gin mentally rolled his eyes, of course he'd been recognized! Luckily, no seemed to be chasing after him, so Gin took Luffy's word that he'd handled it and nodded. "Yeah, I'll stay with you for awhile more if that's alright with you. At least until I figure out what I want to do."

"Sure thing!" Luffy agreed, turning toward the sea. "Ace! We're ready to go!"

After Luffy brought them both onto the monstrous Sea King, Gin shot him a questioning glance. "So where to next? I suppose you want to visit Ilias, right?"

Luffy ignored the dread in Gin's tone, laughing as he brought his wrist up to show off the Eternal Pose. "Yeah, that's right! You ready?"

Gin sighed in exaggerated exasperation, before shaking his head in amusement. "Yeah yeah, I guess. This is your ride anyway, so I don't think I have much of a choice."

"Great!" Luffy grinned excitedly. "Next stop, Ilias!"

* * *

Alright guys, so here's how it's going to go down. If the next couple chapters go as planned, then we'll be in Alabasta. Yes, that's right, you didn't read that wrong! Just two more chapters before we get to what we've all been waiting for! Are you ready for it?

I know I am. But until then...


End file.
